Gerald Ford put it simply when he stated: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
Obviously, Bush will not be impeached. Even Pelosi said in the fall of 06 that impeachment was off the table. I take her at her word, in this case.
However, if a person thinks Bush can not be impeached in principle, then I would be frightened to see what a president would have to do to warrant impeachment in their view. Perhaps if he ate a baby on live television it would be possible to broach the subject. The heart of the matter is that he would be brought down in any sane nation for the entire Iraq fiasco, warrant less wiretapping (every violation of FISA is a felony), torture, or just plain incompetence and the wrecking of major institutions by filling them with people who have no idea what they’re doing (or worse, do, to startling effect).
The American people wouldn’t mind either, and that was a year ago for warrantless wiretapping. Similar polls can be found for Iraq on the conditon that Bush lied about the reasons we are there.
Another factor, which hasn’t been mentioned yet, is that impeachment would shine a spotlight on the darkest regions of the administration due to the hurricane of subpoenas. In my view, that would be worth it, even if the vote itself would fail (and it would, of course). It’s important to get these facts on record, with as much media attention as possible (they certainly won’t cover it otherwise, just look at the past six years). Otherwise, we’re in for a Reaganizing effect.
If we don’t believe in the U.N. then we need to stop funding it and reverse all treaties related to it. Otherwise, Bush should be in huge trouble just for the act of Iraq. People were hanged for similar actions in WWII. The problem with this rationale, of course, is that we like being able to meddle in the affairs of other nations, even if it involves out and out conquering, and a rationale of this type for impeachment would invariably lead one to conclude all presidents should be impeached and sent to the Hague. However, if the Democrats wanted to start impeaching without setting such a dangerous precedent they could easily find something else to “pin” on the criminal in chief. As the military would say, it’s a target rich environment.