Impeachment off the table..it makes sense now
At the time, the Democratic party had the momentum of an entire nation which wanted to turn the page on a dark chapter in U.S. history. But when Nancy Pelosi took Impeachment off the table it pretty much blindsided all of us. It didn't make sense, and the momentum we had during that time was stymied somewhat. It gave Republicans a quick breather and ability to re-group. They distanced themselves from Bush, and ever since then have played the role of obstructionist and opposition party to near perfection. The Democratic party had the opportunity to deliver a blow that would have changed the political landscape, but they blinked. Why?
As it has been pointed out many times, this NSA scandal is well beyond Obama's presidency. Before, and after (especially what is to come) his administration. It seems to me the pragmatic, center left President Obama chose to fix the raging fires of our economy instead of worrying about the NSA scandal which was a mere tiny wildfire isolated in the distance. Impeachment could have probably exposed all these layers the NSA was trying to hide, and the economy was on the brink of disaster.
While pragmatism like this is rational, and the short term economic disaster averted, what we have now is long term consequences. And economic disaster still looms over our shoulder peering with a glare of retribution. Now, we also have to contend with a much larger debate than we had under Bush and that was the right of citizen privacy vs the rights of the government to "protect us". That tiny wildfire has turned into a raging huge wildfire now. They tell us that it was always there, but we contend we didn't know how serious or how much large this wildfire had become because there was no transparency. Now, they tell us that it isn't a big deal, but the smoke coming out of that forest is undeniable now. We know a large fire is raging and trying to insult our intelligence only reinforces our commitment to seek out truth.
It is possible that Impeachment of Bush could have ended up sending our economy in a tailspin. But the other outcome could have been a better economy and a more transparent government. By feeding the paranoia that government doesn't work it hurts Democrats for the long haul. We as Democrats know government works when you put people in charge that believe in government. But that requires transparency(honesty about government programs) and accountability (Impeachment) though. So far, we have two strikes and we are one strike away from striking out.
= new reply since forum marked as read
impeachment was "off the table" because there would have been a problem with too many Democrats being revealed as complicit in some of the crimes Bush would have been accused of. They OK'd/knew about a whole lotta stuff that was going on.
I believe that Obama is fully onboard with the current surveillance State. 
Any changes will have to come from pressure on our elected officials to shut it down via repeal/deep revision of the Patriot Act.
