Where Kerry really screwed up with this impeachment talk/"joke" of his

Two things:

1) Unless he's going to lead an impeachment attempt himself NOW or sometime in the next few days, he should just STFU. He shouldn't even joke about it. His little "joke" the other day only serves to give forewarning to the repukes about the future motives of Democrats. If they weren't on their toes before, they certainly are now. His comments are already becoming unnecessary fodder for the rightwing hate groups, and later on, if and when Kerry gets "serious", they'll paint him once again as a flip flopper on this issue, too, and righteously so.

2) The following reason is more important, IMO, and his own words say it all as far as how much Kerry is out of touch with reality: At this party of his the other day he said, according to the Dems who attended it, 'if Dems retake the House, there's a "solid case" to bring "articles of impeachment" against President Bush for allegedly misleading the country about pre-war intelligence.' Well that statement tells me that Kerry has no plans to bring articles of impeachment against Bush, should we NOT retake the House. That is a big mistake. For one thing, we do not need to have a majority in the House to serve articles of impeachment. Sure, the impeachment probably wouldn't come to a final fruition without a Democratic majority, but the process to impeach, with or without a majority, would at least open up serious dialogue by nature of the House rules, and it would be on the Chimp's record that an impeachment try was made.

Whether or not we retake the House, we MUST at least bring up articles of impeachment against this criminal, George W Bush, in 2006, and Kerry's little joke implies that we're only going to try IF we retake the House. How pathetic is that?

It's perfectly legal for any member of the House to serve Articles of Impeachment, majority or no majority. Win or lose in 2006, articles of impeachment must be served. Time is running out, and the Democratic Party will never get the respect it deserves if we only attempt impeachment depending upon a House victory. If Kerry is going to open his piehole about impeachment...and he shouldn't unless he's planning on walking the walk...he ought to at least make it clear that we're going to impeach in 2007 REGARDLESS of the outcome in 2006.

edited last line for clarity

Impeachment should happen. Granted, the optimal situation would involve having enough Dem control of Congress to see the process thru...but the impeachment process should occur regardless.

they better not consider an impeachment attempt that's based solely on "retaking the House". In 2007 we have to attempt it REGARDLESS of the outcome in 2006, and I'll be shocked and let down if we don't.

Kerry wants his supporters to work hard to get Dems elected to congress. That was the whole point.

Senators can't lead an impeachment because their role is as JURORS after the house impeaches.

Like I said in the OP, "It's perfectly legal for any member of the House to serve Articles of Impeachment".

Until the Democrats are ready and willing to start the process, he ought to keep quiet, unless he's willing to back his statements up. You can't ever be too careful when it comes to saying shit like that. Somehow it's always gonna get leaked out.

Repukes may be horrible, nasty creatures, but they aren't nearly as stupid as you imply. Unfortunately.

You actually think the Repubs are stupid? You actually think they haven't already thought about this possibility? They haven't gained this much power by being stupid.
And, Articles of Impeachment can only be implemented in the Congress. Last time I checked, Kerry was a Senator.

IMO, Kerry's statement is much ado about nothing. The impeachment possibility has been floating around for a while. Kerry, has not said anything that hasn't been said before- some talk is serious- kerry's was in jest.

You said it, friend, and that's the trouble with him. His statements always seem to be "much ado about nothing", don't they. He says something and then he retracts it, so it's typical bullshit by a bullshit ARTIST!

Like I said, he ought to just STFU unless he means what he says the first time.

What's funny about bringing the chimp to justice for his illegal war?

I don't really see the humor here.

Let's hope this clown never runs again. Guy is a loser.

Just a holiday party and a joke about impeachment that, according to David Wade, is almost expected at DC parties these days.
That's not to say he is or isn't discussing it in earnest. But it's highly doubtful that this would be an appropriate setting.
As for the implication that we were only going to try if we retake the house, the point Sen Kerry has been making for months now is that our goal IS to take back the house in '06.
Anyway, I wasn't there. I don't know what he said, how he said it or why. But I know he's taking a lot of heat for a party joke, and that's just not cool.
Maybe he needs some new jokes. Wade did say that this one is as old as Rumsfeld.
Maybe something that starts with
A man walks into a bar and tells a joke...

Just a joke. But it did get a lot of people talking about impeachment, didn't it?


;-)

Only the HOUSE can do that. He can't PLAN to do anything of the sort today, tomorrow or NEXT YEAR himself. We would never get out of the gate on such an idea UNLESS we had a majority in the HOUSE, which we don't right now but we might after the election next year. Kerry saying that outloud (as a joke or any other way) might actually win us some support for our candidates by those MODERATES that are seeing the truth of this administration and are fed up with the direction that this administration is going. It's actually a good thing to let others know (joking or not) that we still are paying attention.

Having said that .... now please get over it. :eyes:

said the same words, the reaction on DU would be totally different. :eyes:

and then to retract it in typical Kerry fashion. "I was only joking".

The thing is, Howard Dean got blasted here by many posters for saying something that was considered to be careless, so the same standards of carelessness can be held to Kerry, too.

feeding red meat to the base. If there were any articles of impeachment that the Dems planned to bring, they would have been brought by now.

The only way this situation will change is for the Dems to take the House and 2/3 of the Senate. I am not overly hopeful of either, but there is a chance in the House. We might even take the Senate, but 2/3?? No way.

It cost the Repukes when they impeached Clinton, then failed to convict. I'd bet the Dem leadership has learned that lesson, and will not try anything short of a sure thing.

All he is doing is telegraphing our punches. It's stupid. And it's risky as hell.

And you're right...we should move to impeach with the minority, if we're going to do it. It will deflate charges that Dems are weak or won't stand their ground.

and you're right...it IS stupid and risky. There is nothing to be gained by letting the cat out of the bag a year early, there is only much to lose. Even if the repukes suspect that we're going to impeach, which I'm sure they do, we don't need to assure them of it a year early with careless statements made by someone who's not willing to back them up.

That's the HoR's job. Senators only vote to convict once someone has been impeached.

stay out of it, unless he's leading some impeachment charge himself, which he CAN'T obviously.

That's not the point, though. The point is that he made another statement with serious consequences from a political viewpoint. It's not the same as some of us saying we're going to impeach Bush if we win the House. This is a former presidential candidate who said this, and then he goes and says he didn't mean it. That's a double whammy. What a loser this guy is.

The HOUSE brings up articles of impeachment. The SENATE tries the case.

In addition, I think Kerry is allowed to exercise free speech just like everyone else.

People act like he called a primetime press conference to say this. Geeezzzz

since he's the one who made the statement....oh, I mean the joke.

Because since all the major networks covered him saying it, im sure theres video out there. :sarcasm: