Say It Ain't So Joe

Last week I speculated that moderates may begin calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush. To wit, I present the first piece of evidence from Joe Scarborough's show on MSNBC. He's a moderate Republican, ex-Congressman from Florida, and he claims that he is an "Average Joe". After the Katrina debacle, I noticed that Joe's criticism of the President began to escalate. And now Joe floats the 'i-word' with a hypothetical Bill Clinton question:

SCARBOROUGH: Well, this is uncharted territory. And Josh Green, I want you, if you will, to imagine, how would Republicans have responded if President Bill Clinton had ignored the advice of all of his Joint Chiefs, his top general in the war zone, his former secretary of state, and 80 percent of Americans? Is it not a stretch to say that many Republicans would have considered impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton if this situation were identical?

JOSH GREEN, “THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY”: I think they would have launched a coupe. It probably would have been—probably would have been centered at Fox News. They‘d be going crazy, the way, you know, frankly, quite a few of them are beginning to get with Bush.

You know, we heard yesterday for the first time, you know, at least an admission on Bush‘s part that this line about how we‘re winning the war in Iraq is no longer operative. And he admitted to “The Washington Post” yesterday that while they‘re not winning the war, they‘re not losing. So at least he‘s come a small step down the road toward being where everybody else is, you know, most importantly his top generals.

SCARBOROUGH: Well, Mike Barnicle, as you know, I supported this war and I supported this man twice for president, and yet I‘m growing more disturbed every night by how isolated George W. Bush has become. All the Joint Chiefs oppose his plan for Iraq. His lead general opposes his plan in Iraq, and now he‘s going to quit because Bush has ignored him. Colin Powell opposes his plan in Iraq. And an “L.A. Times” poll is showing that only 12 percent of Americans support his plan for more troops in Iraq. Shouldn‘t more Americans be disturbed at this unprecedented example of a White House that‘s in—and you can only call it this—a bunker mentality?

MIKE BARNICLE, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think, Joe, that more Americans ought to be truly depressed by what they saw today on TV, the latest press conference. We have a president of the United States who is isolated. He‘s delusional. He is stubborn. He has had one intervention that clearly didn‘t work, the Baker-Hamilton report. He is clearly in need of another intervention.

You don‘t have to be von Clausewitz to figure out that urban warfare in the city of Baghdad, comparably the size of New York City, a tremendously hostile environment now, will become even more hostile with the introduction of more American troops. It will do very little, if nothing, to lessen the level of violence in Baghdad. The only...

SCARBOROUGH: And you‘re just going more—you‘re only going to get more American kids killed...

There are a few of us that have called for Bush and Cheney's impeachments for years. But that number will double or triple when we send another fifty thousand American men and women to hunt snipe. Bush's willful ignorance coupled with Cheney's deranged ideology are placing our country in a very dangerous position. The clock is ticking, and we can't wait until January 2009 for a competent Commander-In-Chief. I say kick 'em out in January and install our first female President, Nancy Pelosi!