Do Republican leaders believe they get a “pass” because only Democratic leaders are questioning this administration’s interpretation of the Constitution? Are Democratic leaders waiting for Republicans to begin using the “I” word before they can then jump on the bandwagon?

Every American citizen, regardless of party, ought to be concerned about the threat to our Constitution. And if they're not, they either haven't read it or aren't paying attention to what this administration is doing.

Our nation – and the lives of our troops and the Iraqi people – can’t wait until hell freezes over. It’s obvious as tits on a hog that Bush isn’t going to change his position; and this Congress is petrified of taking any kind of decisive action against this administration until 60 members of senate agree on what kind of action to take and/or until 90 percent of the nation threatens to fire the whole damn lot of them – Democrats and all.

In his column on Truthout, Ray McGovern writes that Bush is guilty of wooden-headedness, which historian Barbara Tuchman defines as:

Wooden-headedness ... plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts."

And it appears as though several GOP members of Congress are suffering from wooden-headedness, too. While Democratic leaders try to "kill" this GOP impasse through death by a thousand papercuts issued from a blizzard of legislation and subpoenas, congressional and presidential approval ratings are sinking like petrified wood in Lake Erie, our troops as well as the Iraqis are dying or being blown apart, the world distrusts us, and Bush & Company are wiping their asses with the Constitution.

Americans are outraged. But what to do?

We have shown up at the polls in record numbers to elect people who said they would set things right. But that was eight months ago, and very little progress has been made because too many members of Congress have shown themselves to be more loyal to their party than to their country, and who have worked harder to defend this wooden-headed president than the Constitution.

And now we’re hearing rumors and rumblings that Bush & Company have more treacherous plans in the works and don’t give a damn about the Constitution or the Rule of Law or the Bill of Rights. They are now openly operating under their own set of rules. Meanwhile, Congress is playing by the rules our forefathers set up for them – well, except for one rule.

McGovern believes the Constitution holds the answers for dealing with this dangerously wooden-headed administration.

Thanks to the prescience and courage of those who crafted our Constitution, a wood tool is available. It is a precision tool that, with some courage, can be employed almost immediately. It is called impeachment, the orderly political process the Founders left to us for use when the president and/or vice president or other high official needs to be removed to save the Republic. (The emphasis is mine.)

Since Bill Moyers put impeachment back on the table this weekend and because nearly half the nation now wants impeachment proceedings, discussions are beginning in earnest.

A page right out of Karl Rove’s and Dick Cheney’s playbook says that when something is said three times, it becomes truth -- even when it’s a lie; and when something is repeated over and over again, it becomes policy.

Repeat after me: "Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach. Impeach." The more people talk up impeachment, the less frightening it sounds and the more likely it will become policy.

Perhaps dropping the political version of a nuclear bomb at the feet of the Republican Party will motivate its leaders in Congress to end all efforts at putting out individual "bushfires" and face the very real prospect that the survival of our nation is at stake. And maybe, just maybe, they'll remember the oath they took:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Bruce Fein said on Bill Moyers Journal, July 13, 2007, our nation needs congressional leaders who will stand up and say, “My country is more important than my party.”

Therefore, on Sept. 17, Constitution Day, I will be joining the growing chorus of Americans asking Congress to cut off funding of the Iraq war and to begin impeachment proceedings against President George Walker Bush and Vice-President Richard Cheney to save the Republic.

I want my children and my grandchildren to see that the wisdom and foresight of our forefathers who wrote the Constitution and the courage of our civilian and military leaders in upholding that Constitution can overcome any threat to our nation – even when that threat comes from INSIDE the White House.

TPMCafe Blogger, Tricia, has been working on this for a long time and has amassed a wealth of information in her post Impeachment Watch. Check it out.

And there's a new site, too: The Los Angeles National Impeachment Center

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

-- James Madison

Morgan