The way to go on this, if this is the road to be chosen, is to go after Deadeye Cheney first.  He's surely more than culpable-enough, and removing him will hobble The Unit.

Moreover, I'd argue his laying down the marker of refusal to testify in response to a Congressional subpoena would be enough to constitute a contempt of Congress.  Without even having to litigate it, that would be enough by itself for at least one article.

Then, there's the oil task force, scheming for Iraq war, trying to take over the military on 9/11 (remember, he supposedly was screaming orders from the WH basement), and the list goes on.  And, in any list of his misdeeds, I haven't even gotten to Scooter and Plame.  No need to muss up the criminal proceeding with questions about that.  

This is where I meant to be going last night when I posted the "It's not an election, it's an intervention" diary, but my keyboard seized up and I posted rather than lose what I'd already written.  

Still, the only way to break this WH is to go about it in the way it was done in the Nixon-Agnew WH.  I speculate (I was a little young at the time) that one of the great rocks of support for Nixon was the realization that, if he were to go, the odious (and corrupt) Agnew would take over.  Agnew is remembered as pretty much of a thug - "nattering nabobs of negativism", effete Eastern liberal elite, and all that.  

Once Agnew was gone, the next step was nominating a suitable replacement, and that took place with some substantial guidance given the WH - Ford was well-respected and worked well with others, on both sides of the aisle.  He was also seen as a grown-up and not a nut (I never thought the pratfalls were anything other than stagecraft;  few athletes are that clumsy that regularly).

Once Agnew was gone and a grown-up in place, the fear of deposing Nixon had no more basis, and in that context the Republican elders in Congress had no problem pulling the plug on Tricky Dick.

I don't think the same model will work this time, at least not in the same manner.  Any replacement who The Unit might choose is likely to be pretty odious, too.  Because he's really a pouting little boy who'll just do it to stick a thumb in the Democrats (and country's) eye.  Think "Vice President Giuliani" or "Vice President Lieberman".  Or even "Vice President Jeb Bush".  Anyone nominated would surely be looking toward taking over the Oval Office in the 2008 election (or even before, by implementing the section 4 of Amendment XXV I discussed in my diary).

Beyond being odious, the history of the Republican congresses over the last decade plus indicates there would be no perceptible change in policy, attitude, or direction from anyone who might be nominated from the Republican (or conservative Democratic) ranks.  They've all been guzzling the kool-aid so long that, like a terminal alcoholic, their body rejects real food (or ideas) in favor of the alcohol (or crap ideas) they've consumed for so long.  In fine, there are no respectable grown-ups in the Republican ranks, contrasted to Gerry Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, and the combination of Hugh Scott, Barry Goldwater, et als. who got Nixon to walk.  And, if you're looking to screen the field for a respectable Republican, find the ones who voted "no" on the Torture Act;  there's what, a half-dozen or less?

In this case, I think the way to go would be to so trash Deadeye through investigations that his impeachment would go forward, while using veto-proof budget bills to unman the Office of the Vice President, remove every objection Deadeye could raise to "opening the books", and deny him standing to challenge Congress' acts in Court.  That, and use the Rules of the House to make sure the Republicans have as limited a voice as they've allowed the Democrats.

Translated into big gains for the Republicans in 1998 due to the "outrage", right?  Well, you can dream all you want, but the non-partisan middle will see a Democrat move that way as being the same thing.  

Do-It-Yourself Impeachment, no joke.
The Citizens' movement.

The day the nation demands impeachment is upon us.  Sacks and sacks of mail are arriving in congress demanding impeachment via the House of Representative's own rules.  This legal document is as binding as if a State or if the House itself passed the impeachment resolution (H.R. 635).  

There's a little known and rarely used clause of the "Jefferson Manual" in the rules for the House of Representatives which sets forth the various ways in which a president can be impeached. Only the House Judiciary Committee puts together the Articles of Impeachment, but before that happens, someone has to initiate the process.

That's where we come in. In addition to the State-by-State method, one of the ways to get impeachment going is for individual citizens like you and me to submit a memorial. ImpeachforPeace.org, part of the movement to impeach the president, has created a new memorial based on one which was successful in impeaching a federal official in the past. You can find it on their website as a PDF.

STOP WAITING FOR YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO ACT FOR YOU.

You can initiate the impeachment process yourself by downloading the memorial, filling in the relevant information in the blanks (your name, state, etc.), and sending it in.  Be a part of history.

obviously, this should have been done well before the invasion, not nearly 4 years later, but nothing can be done about that now.

as well, impeaching, without a snowball's chance of conviction, is a true waste of scarce, allocable congressional resources. and he won't be convicted; johnson wasn't, clinton wasn't, bush won't be.