Hagel is in Esquire this week, and gives a bombshell of a quote:

“The president says, ‘I don’t care.’ He’s not accountable anymore,” Hagel says, measuring his words by the syllable and his syllables almost by the letter. “He’s not accountable anymore, which isn’t totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don’t know. It depends how this goes.”

It’s a standard profile of Hagel - the “maverick” Senator standing up to the Bush administration on the war. An idealized portrait that is more grounded in Hagel’s rhetoric than his actions. But it’s the above quote that sticks out and jumps from the page.

Chuck Hagel is suggesting that Bush may be impeached. A few things to gather from this:

•  He can kiss his Presidential ambitions goodbye for even suggesting the possibility. Not that he had much of a chance, anyway, but do you think any Republican primary voter is going to vote for someone who said we might have to impeach Bush?
• If, in fact, articles of impeachment were introduced against Bush, Hagel would have “no other course to follow” but to vote to convict, right?
• Whatever his political ambitions are, I think we can reasonably assume Hagel’s speaking honestly here.

But that’s not to say I trust his words. It’s one thing to say “we might see calls for his impeachment.” And not simply the ones coming from the far left, but real, honest-to-God calls for accountability from all corners of Congress. Not the partisan witchhunt that was the Clinton impeachment, but what was about to befall Nixon in the summer of ‘74.  It’s entirely another thing to say that you will support that impeachment.

My opposition to impeachment is based purely on political grounds. It’s not that I do not think it is justified; indeed, Bush has at every turn blatantly disregarded the Constitution. But it’s a fight we cannot win. We can’t even get 60 votes on a non-binding resolution disagreeing with the President, for God’s sake! How are we going to get 67 votes to convict? Without removal from office, what is impeachment but an empty threat? And, as I put it to the delegates at the Douglas County Convention last year: President Dick Cheney. That’s a scary thought.

Let’s be clear: Hagel’s not actually calling for Bush’s impeachment. But he is saying that it may be a possibility,  which is further than most Democrats have been willing to go. We’ve got 22 months left until the Bush presidency is officially over. That is a long time. And, unfortunately, the spectre of irrelevancy, the “lame duck” factor, does not phase Bush when it comes to foreign policy. He has quite literally said he’ll stay in Iraq even if only Laura and his dog want him to stay there.

But will impeachment change anything? Will it deter this president? Rebuked by the American people, rebuked by Congress, this President continues onward, with an unwavering belief in the imperial presidency. It’s dangerous and costly to our nation. We’ll survive this presidency. We’ve overcome greater difficulties before. The vast majority of Americans simply want this presidency to be over. It’s why there’s such a high interest in the campaign already.

But impeachment? Won’t solve anything. Not unless you have 67 votes.