Can't They Just Impeach the Whole GOP?

This post, written by RJ Eskow, originally appeared on The Huffington Post

Some of us have been slow to board the Impeachment Train. We've held back as our fellow Americans have organized and led movements to impeach Bush, Cheney, and/or Gonzales. We were reluctant to have the political process subsumed with hearings that distract the country from the many other ways our current leadership has failed it. But after the latest testimony from Gonzales and the flagrant disregard of Congressional subpoenas by Bolten and Miers, there are only two words left to say:

Enough, already.

The shameful fact that no Republicans joined today's call to investigate Gonzales raises a question: "Why can't they impeach the entire Republican Party?" After all, the utter lawlessness of the last six years could not have occurred without the active complicity of the full GOP leadership. They have chosen to react in a partisan way to both unconstitutional usurpations of power and simple acts of criminality, and have benefited as the perpetrators seized and held office through unscrupulous means.

Impeachment of the entire GOP may sound like a partisan suggestion meant to protect the Democrats. Actually, rebuilding the Republican Party from the ground up may be the only way to save the two-party system (though many of us feel that it's in need of serious overhaul.) Unless the Republican Party is restructured, our only options may be one-party rule or permanent political paralysis.

How does a President with 25% approval ratings continue a war that has 30% approval ratings? How does a deceptive Attorney General keep his job? We've learned lately that some things are surprisingly easy, if people are shameless and utterly cynical - and if their own party isn't willing to confront them.

Our political system favors the two leading parties. In return, each should show that system its allegiance, and should uphold and obey its laws. If it does not, it should lose its privileged position in our electoral process.

I don't say this out of hostility toward the GOP as it once was. As a Democrat, I was happy to work for the Republican Administration of Bush I as a contractor. I represented the country, and by inference the Administration, in a number of international delegations. I was proud to do so.

Back in those seemingly halcyon days, most of us operated in the belief that both parties - however limited by cynical campaigning and big-dollar contributors - would obey the law and serve the Constitution when push came to shove. Leaders occasionally tried to push the envelope, but in those rare instances when government malfeasance became excessive politicians would set partisanship aside and defend the rule of law.