Molly Ivins on the Bush Wreckage

During the 90s, I was a big fan of Molly Ivins and I still am but for the last three years I felt she was often three to six months behind the times. Now this is far preferable to many other journalists, like Thomas Friedman, who have often been three years behind the times. I missed a very good Ivins article from last week and here's a few paragraphs:

Looking at the wreckage of the Bush administration leaves one with the depressed query, "Now what?" The only help to the country that can come from this ugly and spectacular crack-up is, in theory, things can't get worse. This administration is so discredited it cannot talk the country into an unnecessary war with Iran as it did with Iraq. In theory, spending is so out of control it cannot cut taxes for the rich again; the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bushies is already among its lasting legacies.

As we all know, things can always get worse, and often do. I rather think it's going to be up to the Democrats to hold the metaphoric hands of this crippled administration until it limps off stage. The Republican National Committee has a new scare tactic for the faithful: You must give to the party, or else the Democrats will spend the next two years investigating the administration (horror of horrors)....

(snip)

Barring emergency, I suspect the wisest thing Democrats can do in the next two years is to begin steadily undoing what Bush hath wrought -- on tax and spending, on global warming, and on surveillance and other illegal lunges for power. George W. Bush ran in 2000 as a moderate. He did not bother to inform us at the time that he felt the government of this country needed a much stronger executive above the law. Congress has sat by passively while this administration accrued more and more power. If members of Congress think the legislative branch should be equal, it's time for them to stir their stumps.

Molly Ivins is right that Bush cannot persuade the country into yet a third war, this one in Iran, but I wish she had qualified her statement by reminding people that Bush sometimes charges ahead anyway hoping he can somehow land on his feet.

I still favor impeachment of Cheney and Bush and I favor it because it is exactly the kind of thing the founders of our country put that clause in the US Constitution for. And if impeachment were ever to happen (okay, I'm not holding my breath), the logic of impeachment would have to begin with Cheney and then Bush.

I don't mind Molly Ivins discussing other options besides impeachment so long as she includes the need to hold Bush accountable. I'm not rigid on these things and I believe in building consensus when opinions vary widely, but I think calling for impeachment is in itself an important thing that must be done given all that has happened.

I will settle for reform and accountability in the end. The crooks and incompetents need to be held in check and the sooner the repair of our nation begins, the better. But it's important to remember that Bush is still capable of digging a deeper hole for our nation.