Can we please look forward instead of back? I don't want to waste time trying to impeach Dick Cheney or George Bush.

Let's spend our energy trying to get a better President and Vice President in 2008.

Both parties in Congress today played games with Dennis Kucinich's impeachment bill. It now goes to the Judiciary Committee where I bet it never sees the light of day or debate. KagroX at Daily Kos explains what happened.

Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette has just released this statement (no link, received by e-mail):

“Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s resolution raises important questions that require more than just 60 minutes of discussion on the House floor. That is why I voted to refer his resolution to the Judiciary Committee for the Committee to consider the measure through the regular process.”

I know many readers will disagree, but let's be practical. The time to impeach, if there was one, was after we learned Bush and Cheney lied about getting us into war in Iraq. It's too late now and counterproductive.

President Bush is now less popular than Richard Nixon.

By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

[Photo, taken by me in June, 2007, is of a mask located at Hunter Thompson's Owl Farm.]

All options are now exhausted. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan, age 73, will report to federal prison in rural Wisconsin by sundown tomorrow to begin serving his 6 1/2 year sentence. Supreme Court Justice John Stevens today denied his appeal for a stay.

Gov. Ryan did a great thing while in office.

He .... suspended all executions in Illinois and emptied out death row by commuting the sentences of all 167 inmates to life in prison. He cited the risk of the criminal justice system making a grave and irreversible error.

Digby skewers Maureen Orth, but I noticed this bit:

What I remember most vividly about that evening [a 1964 party on the Presidential yacht when Orth was a college student] was an exchange I had with Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general. “What are you going to be next, vice president or senator?,” I asked rather impudently, because I did not want him to think I was a brainless bimbo.

Very meaty question Orth asked. But I suppose she did leave it for us to discover the amount of brain she has. In any event, as Atrios (he puts them in the 7th grade) notes, Ms. Orth has regressed since then. This article is so sexist and condescending, that it makes a mockery of feminism. It seems "hostessing" is the highest calling for women in certain DC salons.

This is obvious. Matt Stoller writes:

I spoke to a New York state party insider who told me that candidate numbers have been dropped ten points in local elections to be held tomorrow because of immigration, across all major voting blocs. The right-wing speaks entirely in coded language about tribalism, and it's beginning to hurt our candidates badly.

I am curious about Stoller's conclusion that it is hurting. In Western New York, I suppose it is hurting. But what about in areas with significant Latino populations? Is it hurting there? Or is it helping Dems? I find Stoller's formulation problematic in the extreme. Indeed, one need only read Stoller's partner, Chris Bowers, to see why:

[L]ooking through exit poll data, it appears that [Kerry and Dukakis] performed almost identically among one of the larger demographic groups in the electorate: white voters. The only real difference between the outcome of the 1988 and 2004 elections does not seem to be that Kerry did any better among particularly demographic groups, but rather that demographic groups more favorable to Democrats formed a larger share of the electorate. In fact, Kerry actually did worse than Dukakis among Latinos. If John Kerry had won Latinos by the same 70%-30% margin that Dukakis did, then he would have at least pulled to within less than a percentage point on Bush, and possibly even won the popular vote.

Stoller seems to be misunderstanding the moment imo. Standing with Latinos on immigration MUST be part of the Emerging Democratic Majority strategy of the Democratic Party. This is precisely why John Edwards' weasel words on the subject are so troubling.

As Big Tent Democrat and many other bloggers noted yesterday, Rudy Giuliani continues to support Bernie Kerik.

It's one thing to stick up for your friends, it's another to reinvent their record.

Rudy Giuliani said Monday that if his achievements as president are as good as the crime-reduction results of his New York police commissioner, a man now under criminal investigation himself, "this country will be in great shape."

...."Bernie Kerik worked for me while I was mayor of New York City. There were mistakes made with Bernie Kerik. But what's the ultimate result for the people of New York City? The ultimate result for the people of New York City was a 74 percent reduction in shootings, a 60 percent reduction in crime, a correction program that went from being one of the worst in the country to one that was on '60 Minutes' as the best in the country, 90 percent reduction of violence in the jails."

It wasn't Bernie Kerik who brought the crime down in New York, it was Giuliani's prior police commissioner, Bill Bratton, who is now LA's police commissioner. While the reduction may have continued under Kerik, he just benefited from policies implemented years earlier by Bratton.

More...

No surprise here, but the Senate Judiciary Committee today voted to send Michael Mukasey on to a full Senate vote for confirmation as Attorney General.

The vote was 11 to 8, with two Democrats, Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, joining all nine Republicans on the panel in backing the nominee. Eight Democrats voted against Mr. Mukasey.

Feinstein's vote is predictable. She hasn't been a Democrat or a progressive for years, in my opinion, with her constant joining with Senators like Orrin Hatch to promote more tough on crime bills.

Schumer is more of a disappointment. Not because he is a progressive on criminal justice issues and this is a change of hat for him -- he isn't -- but because it seems like he voted for Mukasey just to avoid looking like a jerk for suggesting his name in the first place. In other words, he cares more about his reputation than what's good for the Justice Department.

Of course, Schumer says otherwise.

Update: Here are Sen. Patrick Leahy and Dick Durbin's statements.

The BlogWorld Expo runs Thursday and Friday in Las Vegas. When I first heard about the event, I wasn't inclined to participate, but not because of the organizers or participants or because I didn't think it would be a success. It was because it seemed like the principal purpose would be for companies to sell products to bloggers and I wasn't (and am not) interested in going somewhere to go shopping.

But, it turns out there's lots of good seminars and panels and they've added a political blogging program.

So, I'll be there Thursday - Friday and participating in two panels. If you're going to be there, I hope you'll drop in on them.

More....

Reuters reports:

Six U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq on Monday, the U.S. military said, making 2007 the deadliest year for U.S. forces in the country.

The deaths took the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq this year to 852. The worst previous year was 2004, when 849 deaths were recorded.

In total, 3,855 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

As for those who do make it home, so many are going to need mental health help. The Joshua Omvig suicide prevention bill was signed into law today:

More...

Writing in The Hill, Kos brings a welcome antidote to the Netroots Identity Crisis:

D.C. is a funny place. No one seems to have gotten that resounding message, certainly not Bush and the new Republican minority. More surprisingly, Democrats also failed to get the message. On issue after issue, the Democratic norm has been to capitulate to the slightest pressure from the GOP. And while the public has meted record-low approval ratings for this Congress in response, the lesson apparently remains unlearned. Whether it’s Iraq funding or the Michael Mukasey confirmation, Democrats continue to give away the store without receiving any concessions in return. It’s a one-way street in a town that has ceded Article I of the Constitution for a unitary, non-compromising executive. The public is sick of this administration’s betrayals. Why aren’t Democrats?

Hear! Hear!

At Daily Kos, Welshman provides strong evidence that he misunderstands the only effective role the Netroots can play to promote progressivism. He bemoans the mean attacks on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arguing, more or less, that she is doing the best she can.

MORE on why Welshman is wrong on the other side.

Jeffrey Toobin reviews Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' autobiography , My Grandfather's Son, in the New Yorker this week.

Like most judicial conservatives, Thomas criticizes liberal Justices for using the Constitution to promote their “policy preferences.” But, as Thomas’s book clearly demonstrates, he has sought to enshrine in the Constitution his own policy preferences—the ones he learned from his grandfather.

This is especially true on the question of race.

It's a long review and Toobin has put a great deal of thought into it making it a good read.