The I-word returneth (impeachment, that is)

Liberal Oasis has a good take on all the recent impeachment talk, based on a recent Zogby poll: "[M]ore than two-in-five voters (42%) say they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found the President misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq." Let me say once again here that I do not support the impeachment of President Bush. If new revelations come out, fine. But, based on what we currently know (see, for example, my take on the DSM here), there is in my opinion no justification for impeachment. L.O.:

For one thing, there’s practically no chance that this Republican House will ever vote for impeachment of this Republican president. And there’s similarly little chance that the Democratic leadership will get behind impeachment.

(There is a little loose talk about pushing impeachment among a few liberal House members, but even Rep. John Conyers, who organized the Downing Street Memo hearings, is not on board.)

So if some politicians and activists step up the impeachment talk, it would not really be with any hope of an actual impeachment, but with the hope of reframing the political discussion about Iraq...

Iraq is a crisis. A crisis of Bush’s making but a crisis nonetheless. And the public demands a strategy and a resolution.

To not do so is to lack credibility in the broader Iraq debate.

You want to push for impeachment?

Then you better say at the same time what you believe should happen with Iraq after impeachment.

Otherwise, you will just look political while people continue to die.

So it's up to Democrats to come up with an alternative on Iraq, not just to talk impeachment loosely and without any real hope of success:

"Impeach Bush," by itself, is an obsession, not an agenda. If it is to be pursued, it needs to be part of a larger agenda for Iraq...

Without a singular view, there’s probably no way around having a cacophony of voices from liberals and Dems on Iraq for the foreseeable future.

The risk is without agreement on what to do going forward, it will be too easy to only debate the past, leaving the false
impression that liberals and Dems have no thoughts about how end the Iraq crisis.

But hopefully, if we all are at least offering ideas about what should be done going forward, regardless of our other strategies, we can at least expand the discussion and move towards a unifying vision to offer to the public.

And that's exactly what the American people -- the overwhelming majority of whom are dissatisfied with Bush's job performance -- are waiting for. Are Democrats up to the challenge?