If Bush isn't impeached can there be any accountability afterwards?

If he is impeached, there can be criminal proceedings, as there should be, to hold him and his minions responsible.

If he isn't, I would imagine there can't be any trials. If the Congress didn't hold him accountable while he was perpetrating the crimes, they would have been condoning them so he wouldn't be punished aftterwards.

So he, and Cheney, can live out the rest of their lives lives in peace and happiness under secret service protection paid for by you and me.

Doesn't quite seem fair, does it?

as the first four letters in "Fairy Tale."

the debate will shift to a "bipartisan effort" to limit executive powers again.

if there is another election. sends every repuke to the hague for trial.

to put him on trial.

Impeachment is just firing him from his job. He's a multimillionaire, Losing his job means nothing. Prison is the only way.

of capital, he would be crushed.

If he gained anything illegally while being president, he might be open to prosecution, even if he didn't know he was gaining at the time.

As for the OP...bush is just a like any other citizen after he leaves office, he can be sued, he can be held accountable for criminal proceedings...anything any other citizen might be held accountable for. The only thing protecting him now, is that he is president, and that is questionable.

I am hoping the international courts will be hot on his trail. I have little faith that our compromised courts will pursue him.

an awakening is crossing the country, and people are seeing just how horrendous the neo-con agenda is for a Democratic Republic. I think this will be the end of the whole lurid mess.

The "fear card" has been played out, the facts are in...the new GOP has nothing in common w/the the past, except in name. This is not the party of Lincoln, nor of TR, nor of Eisenhower...it is the party of reckless abandon, of class warfare and of a new brand of royalty.

The current administration has greed and avarice as it's only defining measure. Arrogance and the ability to enrage the rest of the world are hallmarks. Disaster follows every step this administration has taken, and people know it.

We may be witnessing the end of the GOP as it stands today....Nixon was nothing compared this group of thugs. I doubt if the GOP will recover in a generation.

As for pardoning bush, they can't use a blanket pardon...they have to specify something, and he has so many errors and miscalculations, he'll get nailed somewhere down the line...besides, the R's couldn't win w/what they have right now, and there is nothing in the future. Whomever is the R candidate, he is a sacrificial lamb.

cover the past and future.

A book title comes to mind as naming the bush administration, "Imperial Hubris."

that he would continue to pursue future criminal activities that would not be covered by an "amnesty provision".

Besides....I can't picture the GOP in power for quite some time, but I've been wrong before.

go after him for his crimes against humanity.

Look, right now, until/unless he changes his story completely, we have the AG dead to rights on perjury.

If that's not punished, if the law isn't involved with him, then what precedent does that set going forward?

I believe wholeheartedly that there are also myriad reasons to impeach Bush and Cheney, but I think getting such absolute, clear-cut evidence as was shown on national television with the AG might be tougher. Nonetheless, what's the precedent set here? Cause so much trouble, break the law in so many ways, that consequences seem just, oh, too much trouble?

I think if we start with the AG, the ball will begin to roll.

Suppose Bush is impeached & voted removed from office. Do you think he'll step down quietly?

I seriously don't think that will happen without an armed confrontation, suspension of Habeus Corpus, and all those other Unitary Executive powers he's assumed. Not to mention that if it went to such an endgame, the process of getting there will take months, and by that time he'll be a lame duck.

Now, suppose we hold impeachment hearings in the House, keep issuing them subpoenas, starve funding and not try too hard to compromise when drafting legislation. Wait it out. then the On January 21st, 2009, arrest the lot of them and ship them off to the Hague to face war crimes trials. No armed confrontation. No stacked courts. No cameras in the courtroom.

A guy's gotta dream.

which will allow the next president to assume the same unilateral powers and be free to expand on them even more