The effects of not impeaching the President

What will the long range effects of not impeaching President Bush be?

consortiumnews.com...

"In other words, the national Democrats seem ready to let the junior George Bush stroll off into the sunset with his legacy relatively intact, much as the senior George Bush was allowed to do.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior Democrats are turning a deaf ear to grassroots demands for at least impeachment hearings against George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over their violations of criminal laws (e.g. the ban on torture and the need for court warrants authorizing wiretaps), their trampling on constitutional rights, and their deceptions that led the nation into the disastrous Iraq War.
Though Democrats control the House and the Senate, there doesn’t even appear to be a likelihood of comprehensive hearings on the lessons to be learned from Bush’s blunders in the “global war on terror.”
Democrats didn’t raise their voices after Bush’s State of the Union Address on Jan. 28 when he repeated one of his central falsehoods about Islamic extremists – that they are motivated by a hatred of American freedoms, rather than a resentment of U.S. government interference in the Muslim world."

In this article from Consortiumnews some of the basic issues of a possible impeachment are brought up. If you are old enough to remember the Iran-contra affair and the resulting investigations you know that many issues were left unresolved and were not pursued by the Democrats. Did that lead to a healing process or did something quite different take place? How will not bringing charges against GW Bush play out down the line? Will we experience improved oversight and safety from the Unitary Executive or will this Administrations actions come back to haunt the American people? Your opinions are requested and your prognostications will be duly noted.

reply to post by polanksi

Great post.
I think that by not starting impeachment proceedings, the Democrats are signaling that they really don't have a problem with some of the things that Bush has done. That sickens me. I really DO worry about the potential loss of freedom in this country. It's the Chinese water torture routine. Slowly, small groups of people are losing their freedom.

It reminds me of Rev. Niemöller's famous statement in Nazi Germany:

"First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the union members, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a union member.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Finally they came for me ,and by that time there was no one left to speak up."

The democrats have failed to SPEAK
UP.