Empty-Headed Demagoguery

Empty-headed demagoguery from Russ Feingold today. He wants to "censure" President Bush - an empty, meaningless gesture designed to placate his more rabid base elements since he is undoubtedly smart enough to realize that a) despite the wish-upon-a-star maunderings of the far left, George Bush has not done anything to warrant impeachment and b) even if the more rabid elements could kangaroo something up there is absolutely no way in hell that the Senate would convict or remove him. You would never know it from the left, but impeachment means nada - not a damn thing. Bill Clinton is the only living ex-president who was impeached - out of two total. Yet he served his full term, didn't he? (And again, that was not a good move by the Republicans).

Feingold, a prominent war critic, said he soon plans to offer two censure resolutions — measures that would amount to a formal condemnation of the Republican president.

The first would seek to reprimand Bush for, as Feingold described it, getting the nation into war without adequate military preparation and for issuing misleading public statements. The resolution also would cite Vice President Dick Cheney and perhaps other administration officials.

The second measure would seek to censure Bush for what the Democrat called a continuous assault against the rule of law through such efforts as the warrantless surveillance program against suspected terrorists, Feingold said. It would also ask for a reprimand of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and maybe others.

"This is an opportunity for people to say, let's at least reflect on the record that something terrible has happened here," said Feingold, D-Wis. "This administration has weakened America in a way that is frightful."

The only thing frightful here is Feingold's promotion of a useless gesture as something meaningful. Or rather, the acceptance of his rabid base elements that this would actually mean anything outside their echo chambers.

Harry Reid - not the sharpest tool in the shed, is sharper than Feingold, though. He realizes that that little piece of political street theater would be a) empty, meaningless and stupid and b) very, very likely to backfire on the Dems the way Clinton's impeachment did on the Republicans.  But the thrashing on the left about this is highly amusing. Almost as good as the near-orgasmic ecstasy that preceded the Cheney indictment.

With the same result and many of the same breathless performances by the same players. (See Memeorandum.)

UPDATE: More reactions. I was mild. Hot Air, Captain's Quarters, Sister Toldjah, Macsmind, Wake up America, The New Editor, Riehl World View, Bullwinkle Blog, Ian Schwartz,