Praying For Al Gore, or Where Do We Go From Here?

With the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence, there is much angst on the liberal blogosphere and liberal message boards about why the Democrats need to impeach President Bush. I want to go on record as suggesting that yes, I believe Bush has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. Still, I would suggest that to impeach would be both futile and a waste of time. There is simply no way we can get the 66 votes in the Senate to convict and remove. Independent voters would see it as political grandstanding with no hope of succeeding, hurting Democratic candidates in 2008. So what should be do? O.K., here's my suggestion on how we should proceed from here.

First, we need to understand that sometime next spring Bush will declare victory and bring our boys and girls home, hoping to take away our strongest issue. There is no way the Republicans will allow Iraq to dominate the 2008 elections. Democrats need to start focusing now on other issues, particularly the issues that most citizens really care about.

So we need to pass bill after bill on real issues: health care, energy independence, repeal NAFTA, repeal tax breaks for big oil, repeal Bush's tax breaks for the rich, repeal the bankruptcy bill, repeal the Medicaid scam, make illegal the use of electronic voting machines. Sure, he'll veto every one, and we don't yet have the votes to override, but it will put both the Democrats and the Republicans on record. It will give our candidates in 2008 something to run for -- we can't just be against Republicans, we need to be for a better America.

We also need to investigate, investigate, investigate. Continue to investigate the prosecutor firings. Continue to investigate the Plame scandal. Continue to investigate war profiteering and privatization. Continue to investigate the administration's handling of Katrina. Continue to hammer on the Libby commutation. Continue to investigate illegal wiretapping. Expose the Bush cabal for what it really is: an affront not only to average Americans but to the Constitution as well. Then, in 2008, any Republican who continued to support this bunch can be roasted over the fire-pit of public revulsion.

We have to win the presidency in 2008, people. If we don't we may be doomed as a free nation. I can't stress enough how important this next election will be. If we lose, the Supreme Court will be lost for at least a generation. An election process already rigged to elect Republicans will be so ingrained in the system we won't be able to dig out. Corporations will be further enriched at the expense of an ever shrinking middle class. We have to focus on this election, because it may be our last chance to save the nation. Concentrating on a futile effort to impeach only takes our eyes off the ball.

The reason Republicans have been so successful the past two decades is because all they care about is winning. We have to have a strategy to win first -- then we can go about the business of actually governing the country out of this mess the Republicans have made.

And that is why I am beseeching Al Gore to throw his hat in the ring. As sad as it is to write today, in the year 2007, both racism and sexism are alive and well in America. Quite simply, I don't believe either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton are electable. Sure, the polls and focus groups suggest we, as a nation, are ready for a black man or a woman to be president. And I would like to believe the people responding to these polls are not lying; I just think, in their heart of hearts, many of these people, in the privacy of the voting booth, won't be able to pull the lever for a black man or a white woman.

That is why I think Al Gore must be our nominee. Failing that, we must support John Edwards, who I believe is the only other candidate running on the Democratic side who is electable. Because winning is of such paramount importance this time around, in 2008 ideology must wait.