one-third of americans think bush should be impeached for his decision to go to war in iraq. as atrios notes, this is approximately the same percentage as those who favored clinton's impeachment. atrios claims this says more about the media than anything else, but i don't totally agree. while the media certainly jumped on the impeachment bandwagon, it was not instigated by them (whatever "them" means when you are speaking of something as nebulous as the media). the impeachment frenzy was pushed relentlessly by conservatives in congress even as polls repeatedly showed that they did not have support of the public. (clinton's approval rating was in the mid-60s when he was impeached, a number that is higher than bush's present rating). the media just followed along. sure, they didn't have to, but the republican leadership was really good at creating the appearance of blood in the water. it was inevitable that the media would be drawn to the spectacle.
as far as i know no democrat in congress has called for bush's impeachment. is that because democrats don't have enough votes to pull it off? or because they are too high-minded to resort to such a low tactic? or because they believe the clinton impeachment was damaging to the country and don't want to put us through that again? or because they fear that to make such a call would be political suicide in these times of war and they think that the president should be allowed to do whatever crazy shit he dreams up so long as he chants "war war war" as he does it? or just because they are a bunch of big wussies? we report, you decide.
