Let's can the impeachment talk, shall we?

I don't read Chris Bowers of MyDD that often anymore, but he's got a large dose of common sense for Congress this week, detailing why impeaching Bush should be off the table. He lays out a number of depressing but certainly valid bullet points, but here's a summary with a few of his more choice reasons.

I would like to say a few things about why impeachment is not going to happen, and why I don't think the new Democratic majorities in congress should pursue impeachment

• The congressional leadership, both Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, have said they will not push for impeachment.
• Simply put, the votes to pull off either, especially the conviction, are not there. We aren't even close
• Now that we have the majority, I do not see the value in pursuing legislation that will divide us, while unite the Republican opposition. I would like to wedge them, rather than wedge ourselves
• Congress should not start investigations already knowing how it wants the investigations to end.

All good points, and there's plenty more if you click through to the full article. Look... I'm not saying that Bush isn't guilty of impeachable offenses or that he doesn't richly deserve it. In fact, I would argue that his is on both counts. But the left and the middle in this country are supposed to be the realists, remember? And realistically, this isn't doable.

We would tie congress up in knots for two years on a matter where, even were it to come to the floor, the votes would not be there. No Republican would support it and many Democrats, in their rush to look bipartisan, wouldn't go along. It's a recipie for disaster for the Democrats. And it would fail.

Even if it did somehow succeed, what would you have? President Cheney? Unless you think you can impeach them both at once (and I'm not sure you could) it wouldn't be over before 2008 ended. And really... isn't the phrase "President Cheney" enough to put you off any such idea?

It would further a truly terrible precident set by the Republicans some time back. They already lowered the impeachment bar to ground level with Clinton. A move like this would essentially be an open invitation where each and every time one party controlled Congress and the other had the White House, the opposition party could and probably would immediately begin working to impeach the Executive branch and replace them with their own Speaker of the House. Might sound like fun now, but I would hope that you'd learned the bitter lesson the GOP is choking on right now and realize that someday the shoe will be on the other foot and the Republicans will control Congress while a Democrat is in the Oval Office. Not pretty.

As Bowers points out in his article, the public actually gelled in support of the Democrats and Bill Clinton when the GOP tried to impeach him. You've got the GOP down at the moment. Don't offer them a free pass to get back up again.

Yes, it would be incredibly satisfying to impeach Bush. But it's a pipe dream - and a dangerous one at that. Best to let it go and allow the history books to dole out the real punishment to him. Worst President Ever. Now get back to work in Congress and do the REAL damage you are capable of doing to the Republicans. That is... go get some actual work done for the people and show them what they've been missing out on these last six years.