Oooh, nuance!

Today, the House Judiciary Committee voted 22-17 along party lines to issue criminal contempt citations for Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten. The full House will vote on the measure next, but it's not clear whether or not they will do so prior to their August break.

Contempt is such a perfect word for the Bush administration and its view of America, isn't it? They have contempt for the Constitution. They have contempt for the rule of law. They have contempt for the opposition party. Most of all, they have contempt for you and me, the public who presumably they are serving.

Personally, I believe that John Conyers is absolutely DYING to impeach Bush and Cheney. As far back as 2005, while he was in the minority party and forced to conduct meetings in basements, Representative Conyers put forth HR 635, which called for the following:

RESOLUTION

Creating a select committee to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.

Resolved, That there is hereby established in the House of Representatives a select committee to be known as the Select Committee on Administration Predetermination to Go to War and Manipulation of Intelligence (in this resolution referred to as the `Select Committee').

Given this evidence, and Brad Blog's July 21st report that he's chomping at the bit, Mr. Conyers deserves our thanks - and our assistance.

As I mentioned Monday, the good Representative is THREE VOTES away from having 218 votes in the House, which would be enough to proceed with the impeachment of Dick Cheney.

I called my representative today. It was an interesting experience. At first her aide was fairly matter-of-fact when she told me that Ms. Lowey had not yet signed on to the resolution. But when I told her that Dick Cheney is a clear and present danger to America and to our national security and that he needs to be removed as soon as possible, her manner completely changed. Suddenly, she realized that I was not some robo-caller - that the issue was extremely important to me. I believe that I made a difference today.

We need to do whatever we can to help John Conyers get those last three votes. Impeachment (at least Dick Cheney's) will not happen unless the Congress realizes that we won't rest until we get it. Even then, it may not succeed - but just the effort will bring sunlight to a very dark time in our history.