I intentionally avoid talking about impeaching Bush, not because the idea lacks merit, but because it’s just too implausible for me to even consider. The Republican majority in Congress, short of video footage showing the president selling military secrets to Osama bin Laden, would simply never consider it. With this in mind, I try not to dwell on impeachment, no matter how much it’s warranted.
And yet, the “i” word keeps popping up anyway.
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, for example, wrote yesterday:
The incompetence at the highest levels of government in Washington has undermined the U.S. troops who have fought honorably and bravely in Iraq, which is why the troops are now stuck in a murderous quagmire. If a Democratic administration had conducted a war this incompetently, the Republicans in Congress would be dusting off their impeachment manuals.
That’s true. But would the public go along with such an approach? As it turns out, a surprising number would.
In a sign of the continuing partisan division of the nation, more than two-in-five (42%) voters say that, if it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should hold him accountable through impeachment. While half (50%) of respondents do not hold this view, supporters of impeachment outweigh opponents in some parts of the country.
Considering that no one in the mainstream political dialog (leading Dems, media, etc.) has even broached the subject of impeachment, 42% support is stunning.
In terms of partisan breakdown, 59% of Dems say that Bush should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, 43% of independents are on board, and 25% (one in four!) Republicans agree.
What’s more, as Think Progress noted, only 41% of the public supported impeachment against President Clinton in late September 1998, shortly before he actually impeached and after months of the right-wing drumbeat. The left has barely whispered the word, and 42% of the public would back impeachment against Bush if they learned what most of us already know to be painfully true — the president lied about Iraq before the war.
The fact that Zogby even asked the question suggests Bush’s political standing is in a precarious state. It couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate person.