MB Civic

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/12/8/1227/78438

So…

So if you’re conducting oversight of, say, the NSA spying program, and you want answers from Gonzales regarding the program’s legality, and you subpoena him and he tells you to take a flying leap, what do you do?

…This is not an issue that can be resolved on moral, ethical, legal, or political grounds alone. It can be ignored for any or all of those reasons, but not resolved.

That’s why I’m not requiring anyone to make up their mind today, on the spot. Just consider that there’s a legitimate role for impeachment to play, even in the background, but that it must be “on the table” in order to do so. And here I would note that saying it’s “off the table” does not by itself take it out of consideration. That’s not what this discussion is about, and I think we can discuss the necessity of having this weapon in our hip pocket without necessarily resolving whether or not individual players in Congress did or didn’t say it quite the right way.

Instead, it’s about contemplating the place of impeachment as a procedural tool. Just as it’s the threat of a filibuster that ultimately provides the “power” that makes the “Senatorial hold” possible, so is impeachment the power that makes Congressional subpoena power possible for use against the executive branch.

Well, when you put it that way…