Should Congress Have Impeached George W. Bush in 2007? (with hindsight)

[H. Ross Peron]

Should Congress have held a vote to impeach President George W. Bush in 2007 after Democrats retook a majority in the House? With hindsight.

I think the answer is clearly yes given whether it succeeded or not, it would have served as a way to highlight Bush's unpopularity and especially his malfeasance in leading the nation to war in Iraq, which was quickly forgotten after Obama assumed office.

[😥]

No!

[darklordoftech]

Do you realize who would have become President if Bush was convicted?

[Lechasseur]

No

[SWE]

Yes and then the next Democratic President should have had him hanged

[Ferguson97]

No, it would delegitimatized the Trump impeachments.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

No!

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Yes, but it was the last two yrs of his Prez

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Merely being a bad President isn't an impeachable offense.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

For what reasons? War crimes from the Iraq invasion/no WMDs?

[H. Ross Peron]

No, it would delegitimatized the Trump impeachments.

I doubt Trump becomes President if Bush was impeached, if only because of the butterfly effect.

[H. Ross Peron]

For what reasons? War crimes from the Iraq invasion/no WMDs?

Ordering torture for instance.

[dw93]

It would've been very messy because you'd have to Impeach Cheney to, as an even better case for his removal could be made, and both being impeached would lead to a Democratic Speaker replacing an elected Republican President. The GOP Base would respond with Jan 6th insurrection on steroids, as keep in mind many MAGA cultists were Bush Boot lickers in the 2000s.

[John Dule]

Do you realize who would have become President if Bush was convicted?

In other words, nothing much would've changed.

[darklordoftech]

It would've been very messy because you'd have to Impeach Cheney to, as an even better case for his removal could be made, and both being impeached would lead to a Democratic Speaker replacing an elected Republican President. The GOP Base would respond with Jan 6th insurrection on steroids, as keep in mind many MAGA cultists were Bush Boot lickers in the 2000s.

They could have Cheney appoint a new VP before impeaching him. They could also impeach Cheney first, have Bush appoint a new VP, and then impeach Bush.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Do you realize who would have become President if Bush was convicted?

"Become" is an interesting way to put it.

[Alben Barkley]

Impeaching to “highlight unpopularity” is a bad idea that makes no sense. It has to be for an actual “high crime or misdemeanor” and the bar is pretty high for that. Regardless of how people feel morally about Bush’s actions with Iraq, it would have been a very tough sell that they were illegal given that they were authorized by Congress, and as far as torture and things like that, very difficult to prove Bush’s direct involvement in illegal activities. Likewise hard to prove he deliberately lied about WMDs (that’s still never been proven).

And impeaching him for reasons likely to be viewed by most of the public as frivolous or unjustified would probably have led to a political backlash for Dems and if anything Bush’s post-presidency image may just be higher. This is what happened with the Bill Clinton impeachment after all: The GOP lost seats in 1998, Clinton’s approval rating soared, and until very recently at least he was more popular than ever as an ex-president.

No, the fact that Trump actually committed multiple genuine “high crimes and misdemeanors,” that part of his own party has turned on him, and he has not seen his approval rise or the Dems see their popularity fall because of it, shows how unprecedentedly corrupt and terrible this criminal president is. He’s just on a whole other level and the severity of impeachment which speaks to that would have been lost had it been done too freely before and normalized as simply a political weapon to wield against presidents Congress doesn’t like. Frankly you can argue that’s pretty much how it was used in both previous impeachments anyway, but the rarity of it at least has allowed it to retain some of its power. If 2 of the 3 presidents before Trump had been impeached for blatantly partisan reasons, wouldn’t be the same.

[Ferguson97]

No, it would delegitimatized the Trump impeachments.

I doubt Trump becomes President if Bush was impeached, if only because of the butterfly effect.

Bush would not have been convicted though.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Not in 2007, more like in 2003.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

They won Majority and added seats with Katrina, it was the last 2 yrs of his his term

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Not in 2007, more like in 2003.

Doing it in 2003 would be pretty clearly political suicide if tried...

[Antonio the Sixth]

Not in 2007, more like in 2003.

Doing it in 2003 would be pretty clearly political suicide if tried...

The question is whether it should happen, not if it would be politically feasible.