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Edited on Sat Oct-08-05 12:44 AM by longship
Fitzgerald announces indictments naming several West Wing principles including Cheney and Rice for major crimes. Bush is named as conspirator for participating a two year cover-up. Approval rating at 30% and majority leaders of both houses under indictment for money laundering (Delay) and inside trading (Frist), party loyalty goes to hell in the handbasket. Many Repugs become Republicans again and several moderates bolt the GOP altogether announcing themselves as independents.
The election in 2006 was not so much an election as a meat grinder. With the exception of a very few of the most right wing districts all Republicans took big hits. Many who maintained loyalty to the administration lost their seats, two congressmen to political neophytes. Those republicans who moderated or broke with the neocons faired the best. Many kept their seats but by small margins.
The Senate races weren't close. So many independent voters bolted from the Republican camp that a turn over became inevitable early on election night. In statewide elections across the nation, the Republicans dropped like flies. So many upsets happened that Wolf Blitzer had to stop using the word "unprecedented". The emboldened Democrats, speaking truth to power took both houses of Congress by handy margins.
The dead duck Congress (as it was called) of the rest of 2006 was much more contrite and agreeable to the Democrats. The result was that several resolutions of inquiry made it to the House floor. Two were passed on the House floor even before the new Democratic congress convened in 2007.
When the new Congress convened, action proceeded apace to fix some of the more agregious neocon actions. The Patriot Act was severely amended. Tax cuts were repealed. Chimp quickly vetoed many of the bills. The vetos were just as quickly overridden in both houses. Meanwhile the House Judiciary Committee, with John Conyers in the chair, began formal hearings on the resolutions of inquiry voted on by the House the previous session. They quickly added five more. By March there were more than a dozen.
The Senate Democrats reorganized. Committee chairmanships were doled out quickly. Interestingly, two committee chairs were given to Republicans who made clean breaks with the neocon ideology late in 2005 and assisted the Democrats in forming some crucial coalitions with other, more hesitant Republicans. Thus, Arlen Spector maintained his chair on Judiciary, and John McCain on Security. Although both still Republicans, it was the hope of the new Senate leadership that this would encourage other Republicans to act more like patriots and less like ideologues. In general, this worked. At the end of the Congress, both still held their chairs. Although there was still bitterness among the radical right who remained, their power was so sapped that they would not easily regain the majority.
The one big loser in the election, other than the Republicans, was the DLC. Their candidates did much worse than any of non-DLC Democrats, especially those in the more liberal states. In New York, Clinton lost to a liberal primary competitor who promptly trounced his neocon Republican opponent. Schumer nearly lost to a moderate Republican in the general election. Feinstein, the same. Even in more conservative states DLC did more poorly than the more traditional liberals. CNN analysis on the night of the election showed that the more liberal the campaign, the better the results. Bill Schneider labelled the night as "The Revenge of the liberals" and attributed the success to the fact that liberals provided solutions while the neocons and DLC just pointed fingers. Fox News, still drinking neocon kool-aid, called it, "the socialist insurrection". Interestingly, the failing Fox News would be bought out before the 2008 presidential election, by, of all people, George Clooney.
Seeing the storm clouds on the horizon, Chimpy went into hunker down mode. He was obviously drinking, maybe more than ever. By the end of March, 2007, when he attempted to give a speech in the rose garden and fell over into a row of thorny blossoms, Congress had had enough. Emergency sessions convened throughout most nights to get the work of the people accomplished. Ten articles of impeachment for both Chimp and Crashcart were quickly approved by both committee and the House in general. Four others were voted down.
It didn't matter. The results were a forgone conclusion. The vote counters tallied that of the ten articles, the Senate would convict on at least two for Chimp, three for Crashcart. The trial began on the Monday after Easter with the strangely always smiling Chief Justice Roberts presiding. Before Wednesday of the following week both Chimpy and Crashcart were removed from office. Nancy Pelosi ascended to office and immediately announced half her cabinet selections.
By week's end, three federal prosecutors had a stack of indictments to serve on the two former executives, the bulk of their West Wing staff, and a few from their cabinet. Criminal charges were plentiful. Some carried life in prison. President Pelosi read so many rumors and rumors of rumors about pardons that, in desparation, she held an emergency late evening press conference. Her position was clear and final. There would be no pardons. The Dems instantly became the new law and order party. The former West Wing went to prison.
After a year of legal tangles, President Pelosi finally announced the United States' refusal to honor extradition requests from four other countries for Chimp, Crashcart, and Rummy. Explaining that as they were all three serving life terms with no chance of parole it rendered the extradition requests moot.
Shall I go on? Naw!!! That's enough.
Dreamin'? I don't think so. All it would take is a party with a spinal chord and cojones to take on the lunatics.
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