New Mexico Democrats call for impeachment of President Bush

No, it won't lead to anything, but... wow:

The New Mexico Democratic Party is calling for President Bush's removal from office.

Party Chairman John Wertheim said Tuesday that delegates to Saturday's state party convention supported a call for the president's impeachment largely because of "perceived abuses of power and corruption in the Bush administration."

He listed as examples of abuses of power, warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens, the misstatement of facts preceding the invasion of Iraq, and the scandal surrounding the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide in connection with the leak of the identity of a covert CIA operative.

"Everyone understands President Bush is not going to be impeached," Wertheim said. "But these abuses of power and corruption in the administration are deeply serious matters and there should be more talk about this abuse of power."

The one-sentence amendment, added from the floor to the platform's section on political and election reform, reads: "Resolved, that the Democratic Party of New Mexico supports the impeachment of President George Bush and his lawful removal from office."

This isn't just some small town in Vermont populated by Ben and Jerry clones. This is a state party. Bill Richardson's state party. And give these Democrats credit: They're realistic enough to see that Bush likely won't be impeached -- Republicans control Congress and I'm not convinced that enough Congressional Democrats would even want to go there (I'm not even convinced that I would want to go there) -- but they're also concerned about the danger posed to American democracy by Bush's reckless and foolhardy presidency.

Republicans will argue that this is yet another example of Democratic extremism. Some Democrats may see it as a Feingoldian subject-changer, a weapon for Republicans to use against Democrats. Personally, I think all this talk of impeachment is rather premature and not terribly productive. But I also think that there needs to be a serious national discussion about Bush's abuse of power.

That would be the truly American thing to do.