Beyond Impeachment

A poll currently being taken on MSNBC shows 86% favoring impeachment. The exasperation level is reaching fever pitch, and the word is becoming a mantra. Unless I'm mistaken, the last time the polls showed such uproarious disapproval, the president WAS impeached. Those were simpler times, of course, and it had become the mandate for the ruling elite to throw that president overboard. However, if demographics are truly undergoing a change, and the Democrats do well in the mid-terms, then the will and the way to impeachment might just present itself. And, I understand that Neil Young has written a new song called Impeach The President. Well, if Neil says it, then I guess we can count on it, right? Before, he said Let's Roll, and we sure did that. Thanks for finally coming back to the fold, Neil.

Okay, so impeach the bastard, even if it IS five years too late. I'll be cheering for it as much as the next guy. But, when we fall out of the cloud and hit the ground, where will we be? Even if the chain of command falls all the way down to the Speaker of the House, we're still left with a Republican. Would President Hastert pull out of Iraq, quit the Patriot Act, disband Homeland Security, and cease deficit spending? Most likely, he would "play it safe", and sit on his hands until the election.

Another intriguing question is who he would appoint as Vice-President. The last time that happened, it was Nelson Rockefeller. Imagine that rattlesnake just a heartbeat away from the presidency. It's interesting to note that there were three serious attempts made to assassinate President Ford. Go dig up the PBS special on the Rockefellers, and listen to brother Laurance say, "Nelson said he wanted to be the president, and I told him later, you have failed". It's hard to believe that Sharon Rockefeller, former chairwoman of PBS, would allow that to slip through, but, there you have it. There must have been happier times for those boys, but it sure wasn't in the '70's.

I may be jumping the gun here, as impeachment isn't very likely, but it's frustrating to not hear of any real vision beyond that horizon. Do we sail triumphantly across the river, escaping the 300-lb gorilla, only to discover that we're riding on the back of a crocodile? History is littered with the remains of those went back to sleep after a tyrant had been deposed. The I-Ching, while known primarily for divination, is actually a parable about the safe transition from despotism to benign rule. One would wish that the current and soon-to-be Democratic legislators would read it. Or, at least, the history of Watergate, and all that followed in it's wake.