Reply #26: #13.)The GOP forces Bush to resign.

[elocs]

How do they do that? Has the GOP ever forced Bush to do anything? I still don't understand where the 15-17 Republican Senators are going to come from who will vote to convict Bush. Any speculation on who might do that? The Watergate hearings started in February of 1973, one year into Nixon's second term, which would have been February of 2005 in Bush's second term. A perfect storm has seemed to gather now to defeat the Republicans in 2006. Democrats cannot always depend upon a perfect storm for them to win the day against the Republicans. Your 15 steps is a nice read, but I think there are too many ways that it can go wrong and the entire thing falls apart. If Pelosi says that impeachment is off the table is she being honest or is she being coy? Pelosi may be very pragmatic in realizing that much of the American public, other than liberal Democrats, are wildly enthused about spending much of the next 2 years tearing Bush apart to the exclusion of many important issues that need to be addressed. With Pelosi saying that impeachment is off the table, if it happens the Republicans will paint it as a flip flop and that will ring true to many Americans.

Having said all of that I will be the first to admit that anything can happen. At the time of the Watergate hearings I was in college and worked at the college NPR station and was on the board during what I thought were very boring hearings and I didn't think that anything would come of it. I was certainly wrong then. As happened during the Watergate hearings, we would need somebody like Republican Senator Baker of Tennessee who asked, "What did the President know and when did he know it?" If it comes to conviction of Bush, we will need a good number of Republican senators to vote for conviction. The same senators who have been belittled, ridiculed, and called names here at DU. Not a great way to build bridges or to win allies when you need them. I hope that if and when the Democrats take control that they remember as the Republicans seem to have forgot that they will not be in power forever and should not act with impunity like they will be. Otherwise, the next time the Republicans take control it will make the recent years look like a picnic.