Impeachment? No, But...

I'm not usually enamored of the way people distinguish between "the theoretical" and "the practical." A theory that's deeply divergent from real, lived experience is often a theory that needs to be radically revised or discarded. (Or, in some cases, is a theory that doesn't have any real purpose other than intellectual diversion: a glorified crossword puzzle.)

But there's some room for this distinction in the case of calls for Bush's impeachment. There's been a fair amount of talk about this lately, most prominently the piece by Lewis Lapham in the March issue of Harper's. Most of the best-known liberal bloggers (such as Matthew Yglesias and Josh Marshall) have cocked an eyebrow at this sort of talk, and rightly so: as a matter of politics, of practical action, impeachment is a non-starter. Gestures toward impeachment (such as that by Michigan Rep. John Conyers) are just that, gestures, as long as the Republicans are in charge. And there are some good reasons why it might be wise to avoid impeachment even if the Democrats were to take overwhelming control of Congress this November. So I agree that it's probably a good idea to set aside this talk, at least for the time being. (Lapham himself apparently understands this; indeed, he starts out his piece by pointing out how unlikely it is that Conyers's resolution will go anywhere.)

But let's not fool ourselves: even if impeachment turns out to be practically infeasible, or politically unwise, it is absolutely warranted as a matter of morality when one considers the way Bush's administration has behaved. The multiple lies and misleading statements used to promote the Iraq war are one obvious grounds for removing Bush from office; the recent spying scandal is another. The Iraq war is more serious in terms of its cost in money and lives; the warrantless spying is more serious in terms of the damage done to the rule of law.

In a healthy political culture, impeachment would indeed be a viable option. But in a healthy political culture, Bush wouldn't have received a major-party nomination for the presidency, in the first place, much less been judicially appointed & re-elected. We need to focus not on the short-term political theater of impeachment, but on the much longer-term task of returning American civic culture to something approximating sanity.