AZ GOP is ‘Weak’ on Impeachment

Link: Tucson Citizen Editorial Board – Criticized for talking to constituents.

Mark Kimble noted the AZ GOP’s press release criticizing Gabby for directing her staff to meet with constituents (including yours truly) about impeachment proceedings:

Judi White, chair of the local Republicans, criticized Giffords for asking her chief of staff to talk with a group that advocates the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"There are real problems facing southern Arizona like border security,
healthcare and education,” White said in a press release. “It’s hard to
believe that Congresswoman Giffords would dispatch her top aide to such
a frivolous event.”

The press release also said “White expressed her dismay that a
taxpayer-funded government employee would entertain the views of a
group so far outside the mainstream of Congressional District 8.”

Come on. People who work for a member of Congress work for the public. Can
you imagine the criticism if such an employee refused to meet with a
group of constituents?

Since when do people judged to be “outside the mainstream” not deserve a
meeting with congressional staff members? And who will be decide if a
group is inside or outside the mainsteam and thus worthy of a meeting?

This is pretty weak.

Kimble is dead right, but he stops short of naming the true motive of the GOP on this subject. The GOP certainly went on the attack about this meeting because they are ‘weak’. And they know it. And they are terrified to let anyone know how exposed they feel on this topic.

Any person or organization, and most especially the modern Republican Party will react most derisively and aggressively to what they are afraid of. Frequently, such fear manifests as scorn and derision, like a child’s defensive mockery.

The GOP is terrified of talking about impeachment, and so will attack and belittle anyone breaching the subject.

Why? Because they don’t want to have to defend to their constituents what Bush and Cheney have done to this nation.

They don’t want to have to explain to their constituents why torturing people, lying our nation into a war, wiretapping Americans without warrants, secret prisons, ‘extraordinary rendition,’ and the abolition of the right to be free of arbitrary and indefinite detention are good things that Americans should actively condone – not just barely tolerate through willful and selective ignorance. They want to make the election about anything but the last 8 years of misrule.

They understand implicitly what Democrats haven’t figured out yet: the one debate Congressional Republicans don’t want to have this cycle is why this President shouldn’t be impeached. If they can scare Democrats off the subject by deriding it as fringe and frivolous, then they can sleep well at night.

Why is the danger of impeachment to the electoral chances of Republican House and Senate members so obvious to Republicans, and so lost on many Democrats who smugly assert that impeachment is irrelevant to this election? Because Republicans know how to play political hardball and win at it: most Democrats haven’t a damn clue how to attack an opponent, even where he is weakest, without looking like little girls in a slap fight.

Republicans understand the psychology of anger, hate, and fear because the fundamental psychology of conservatism is based on appeals to and exploitation of those emotions. They understand why effective attacks work, and they know exactly how potent a weapon impeachment would be in the coming Congressional elections.

Ask a Republican whom you trust to be honest with you about their greatest fear (if you are lucky enough to have access to such a rare creature) and they will admit that it is the well-deserved impeachment of another Republican President. Reagan and Bush 1 both should have been, and could have been impeached over the Iran-Contra scandal, and Nixon resigned to avoid his own impeachment. Add Bush 2 to that list, and you find that every Republican President since Eisenhower, other than non-entity Ford, could have been, and should have been impeached. You think they want the American people to contemplate this damning fact?

Democrats’ near-universal lack of understanding of attack politics is leading them to studiously avoid the one issue that could ensure them an even greater margin in Congress in ’09 (especially in the squeaky-tight Senate, if articles of impeachment could be delivered to that chamber), and think they are being smart for doing so.

Americans are fed up with mincing around this issue. Many Americans, like me, are furious at what is being done to the America’s political and legal traditions by this Administration. But Democrats haven’t any clue how to use such anger politically. They seem to be afraid of using even righteous and well-founded anger as a political tool – and so they tip-toe around it, like a dog turd in the middle of the Rotunda floor.

Most Americans want the Congress to take forceful action to put this Administration in its proper place: the dustbin of history. And they desperately want Congress to act forcefully and decisively reject the abusive, illegal, and unconstitutional policies of this Administration before Bush innovations become legitimized as tools of Presidential power by their continued use.

This is real reason why Congress’ approval rating is in the toilet: not because they haven’t pumped out enough enlightened policy proposals, but because they are refusing to fulfill their constitutional function to check an out-of-control, royalist, dictatorial, and self-admittedly criminal President and Vice-President. And that makes Democrats look simpering and weak – because that’s how they’re acting. Yes, Congressional Republicans are even more despised than the Democratic majority because they are
contemptible, hypocritical political hacks, but being less hated that
the biggest cad on the block isn’t any reason for rejoicing.

Americans have contempt for politicians who demonstrate a lack of principles. So maybe Democrats could start with going to the mat with a lame duck, failed President to uphold the primacy of our Constitution, to demonstrate that maybe they have at least one – that Congress has a rightful role and duty under our Constitution.

Now, a personal appeal to the Congresswoman:

Gabby, if you want to kick Tim Bee’s ass right back up to the state senate chambers this November, make him defend Bush. It won’t even be close.

Stop listening to the meat-headed consultants and smug triangulators who advise the Democratic caucus currently and are telling you not to ‘change the dynamic’ of the race because you are sure to win. They are full of shit and apparently haven’t really listened to an average American talk about our current political situation for years.

Make Tim explain to the voters of CD 8 why everything Bush has done has been legal and ethical. Hang the rotten albatross that this Administration has become around Tim’s neck and make him tell voters it’s a proud American Bald Eagle with a straight face.

The GOP will bitch and moan and try to claim you are a kook for even thinking the word impeachment, because that’s the only defense they have left. Derision is last tool of frightened, powerless scoundrels.

If you can’t win this argument, if you can’t explain to your constituents why this President must be stopped and repudiated, if you can’t stand up for the majority of Americans who think impeachment of this President is justified, if you can’t summon the will to stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law, if you can’t uphold the duties of your constitutional oath, if you can’t truly lead in this time of national crisis rather than follow the facile advice of the Beltway boffins, how can you continue to use the title of Representative in good conscience?

Signing on Rep. Wexler’s call for a proper impeachment investigation is literally the least you can do to honor your title and and justify the trust that your constituents placed in you to defend our Constitution and thereby safeguard our Republican traditions.