Doug Ireland's "Time to Impeach" at AlterNet is very pointed at nailing Dems (who he calls "co-conspirators") for their complicity in Bush's illegal spying, and writes:
"It is therefore not simply extremist raving to suggest that impeachment of George Bush should be put on the table. [...] And when a president commits a crime in violation of his oath of office swearing to uphold the law, it is time to impeach."
More surprising is Jonathan Alter's "Bush's Snoopgate" at Newsweek, which also doesn't shy away from mentioning the previously unmentionable i-word in the domain of the mainstream media:
This will all play out eventually in congressional committees and in the United States Supreme Court. If the Democrats regain control of Congress, there may even be articles of impeachment introduced. Similar abuse of power was part of the impeachment charge brought against Richard Nixon in 1974.
John notes at AmericaBlog that: "I don't think I've ever read anything as scathing as this from the mainstream media. Newsweek's Jonathan Alter lays it on the line and spells out a damn good case for impeachment..." Kevin Drum writes "The NSA and the Law" in Washington Monthly, discussing FISA and concluding:
...the president's program is almost certainly illegal unless you accept his unprecedented notion that we are currently in a state of war so grave that he has virtually unlimited power to override federal law whenever he considers it necessary. Even more importantly, by keeping his program secret, he has set himself up as the sole arbiter of whether his actions are legal or not. Neither Congress nor the courts are allowed any oversight, a position that is both breathtaking and dangerous.
Atrios quotes a Bush speech from 20 April 2004:
Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution. [emphasis added]
Atrios' summation is "LIAR." I see no way for this to be seriously disputed.
If Bush's resignation and/or impeachment over this illegal spying (or any other impeachable offenses) wouldn't lead to a Cheney presidency, then I would be all for it. Given the line of presidential succession, though, Washington needs to be cleaned out in much the same manner as the Augean stables.
update
12/21 (8:38am):
If there are any skeptics in the audience about the Bush speech quoted above, ThinkProgress has the video.
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