*Rips out hair*

[pegkerr]

Okay, so President Bush used his year-end news conference yesterday to resume his public relations offensive against his critics, saying he wants the Justice Department to find out who committed the "shameful act" of leaking word that he secretly approved a special program to spy on US citizens, and blasting senators who have blocked the renewal of the Patriot Act.

He accuses others of shameful acts.

He has violated the separation of powers, he is in violation of the Constitution. He is spying on Americans. And yet his poll numbers are rebounding. I saw that and I thought I might spontaneously combust out of sheer political outrage. My god, what is it going to take for this country to wake up and realize it has been taken over by a dictator who is trashing our system of government?

Edited to add: This reminds me of an old Doonesbury cartoon. Two Congressmen are sitting listening to Nixon's lawyers during the Watergate hearings.

"'No impeachable offense. No impeachable offense,'" mimics one. "How can St. John keep spouting that gibberish?"
They lapse into a despondent silence.
"If only" muses the other, "he'd knock over a bank or something."
"By George!" exclaims the first, "We'd have him then!"

Comments

[callunav.livejournal.com]

He's been shifting the blame like that all along. Last I heard, what has just been 'leaked' (maybe 'reported'?) is indeed an impeachable offense, and, indeed, the main person involved in impeaching Clinton has said that Bush should also be impeached. Which, from my point of view, is only sense, but from the point of view of party politics is pretty strong.

I have hope. I think the polls respond most to disasters where people can see suffering they can relate to - wars some, the betrayal of an individual with a name and a face and a history quite a bit, natural disasters much more. I know about the spying and I'm utterly outraged, but I'm not personally scared, hurt, or even enraged. Maybe if there were 'human interest' stories about the people who have been hurt by this new crime, it would affect the polls.

But in the mean time, the law is *slightly* less human-interest oriented than individuals/polls are: whether his polls rise a bit or not, he can and should and I devoutly hope will still be impeached.

If he manages to retain the presidency after being impeached, that's when I'm going to lock myself in a small room and refuse to come out until there's a presidential election I can vote in.