Getting Down to Business

2006-11-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

So the blog is up and running. The template has survived the first round of edits. It's time to get busy.

An interesting observation came out in Amy Goodman's interview with Elizabeth Holtzman. (For those who don't know, Ms. Holtzman served on the House Judiciary Committee during the Nixon administration.) Ms. Holtzman noted: "He [Nixon] had won by a landslide, and impeachment was off the table then. Nobody -- no Democrat was pushing for it. And, in fact, as the revelations came out, it still wasn't on the table. It took the American people, after the Saturday Night Massacre, sending a clear message to the Congress --"

Sound familiar? Everything but the Saturday Night Massacre, huh? Ms. Holtzman went on to explain that the Saturday Night Massacre involved the firing of Archibald Cox, the Special Prosecutor investigating the Watergate break-in and cover-up.

Lest we forget, we have a Special Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, who still has an active grand jury looking into the Valerie Plame issue. The grand jury still has a half year to go before it expires and a lot can happen in that amount of time. Hmmm...

As Ms Holtzman said, "It took that clear signal from the American people, who said, 'Enough is enough. We are not a banana republic. A president cannot be above the law... And we want Congress to hold him accountable.' So it came from the American people. It didn't come from the Congress."

Ah, but once it got to Congress there was an interesting dynamic at work. I was in college during the impeachment hearings, and one of my political science profs (who was very active in the Republican party) gave me a real insight into what was happening. He explained that Nixon had to resign because two factors had lost him any support he might have had in the House and Senate:

he had lost the war in Viet Nam.
CREEP (the Committee to Re-Elect the President - that really was its name; I couldn't make this up) had spent all of its money, energy and time working to get Nixon re-elected without helping any menmbers of Congress.

Bush's record in Iraq cost the Republicans the House and the Senate. Hearings into how he and Cheney have behaved while in office would erode what little support they might still have in either chamber. The Republican controlled Congress would never let such hearings happen. While the top Democrats have said that "impeachment isn't on the table" they have promised hearings.

I think "President Pelosi" has a nice ring to it.

[Shameless promotion: the shop has a full page of impeachment gear]

Welcome to the blog

2006-11-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

OK. I've done it. I have set up an account on blogger.com.

This should simplify the process of putting things online when compared to writing an article, setting it as a web page and then listing it in the archives. We'll see.

This format also allows for shorter posts. I mean, is it really worth the effort described above just to put up a pithy observation? I may still do full on articles from time to time. If so, I will have to add "Create link in blog" to the above list.

I will also be using this blog to shamelessly promote my shop on CafePress by posting the latest designs and other announcements here.

Apparently I can also do postings from my treo. Sweet. (Now if Adobe would only come out with a version of Photoshop for the treo...)

Anyway, stay tuned and we'll see how this develops.

interestingtimes

Getting Down to Business

Welcome to the blog