It's bad enough that Nancy Pelosi took impeachment "off the table" during the 2006 campaign, and kept it "off the table" despite the accumulation of overwhelming evidence of impeachable offenses.
But it's outrageous that impeachment is "off the table" at "Netroots Nation," which is supposed to be the annual gathering of progressive bloggers and their readers, a.k.a. the "netroots."
The closest any panel comes to "accountability" is a panel which entirely ignores the fact that Democrats control the House and Senate now, and instead postpones any form of accountability until 2009.
Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Torture and Military Contractors: The Roadmap to Accountability in the First 100 Days
From illegal detention policies to outsourcing torture and mercenaries, the Bush administration has worked systematically over the last seven years to violate U.S. and international law. Legal advocates and journalists have uncovered the facts and identified those responsible. So what will accountability look like? What must the courts and the next administration do in its first 100 days to make things right?
Let me break some bad news to anyone who thinks the next administration will pursue any form of accountability for Bush's innumerable crimes: it ain't gonna happen.
The odds of the next administration being Democratic are barely over 50% now, and the Republicans haven't started fighting dirty yet. So there's really a 50-50 chance that Obama will win.
But if McCain fails to steal the election and Obama wins, the first words out of President-elect Obama's mouth will be: "we must put partisan bitterness behind us and come together for the sake of The Nation."
Which means any form of accountability will be "off the table" in 2009, just as it was in 2008 and 2007.
It's a scandal that the organizers of "Netroots Nation" haven't even figured this out, let alone thought about a strategy for putting impeachment "on the table" where it belongs. You can share your thoughts (politely of course!) with the organizers here:
http://www.netrootsnation.org/contact
For category, choose "comments/feedback."
Update 1: Another example of the naivete of Netroots Nation is the panel on War Pundits (h/t mcjoan):
Many people helped lead the U.S. into war in Iraq, but few were as wrong, uninformed and unaccountable as the television pundits. How do war pundits influence and distort our foreign policy debates? Why are they the most influential voice in the public discourse of foreign policy? This panel will convene journalists and actual foreign policy experts to dissect the broken punditocracy, Pentagon propaganda and the marginalization of voices critical of war or the government. From Iraq to Iran, panelists will discuss what activists can do to improve the accuracy and accountability of America's foreign policy punditry.
What can activists do? Easy! Support Dennis Kucinich and Robert Wexler in their heroic efforts to hold impeachment hearings on topics like Bush's pre-war lies and propaganda. If the secret work of the White House Iraq Group chaired by Karl Rove was exposed, it would be clear that pro-war punditry was not an accident, but a fully orchestrated campaign. As Scooter Libby famously wrote Judy Miller, "The aspens are turning now out west. Their roots are knotted and grow together."
