NYO's Joe Conason nails it -- and breathes the "I" word -- with authority

Joe Conason, also of salon.com, frames the impeachment argument quite well, not as a gun drawn hastily by leftie bloggers and an overly partisan minority party and pointed at the head of a wartime president but rather as a necessity for the ages of our republic to come -- if Bush will not back down from the precipice to which he's driven the nation.

Quotable, which he draws from former Reagan aide Bruce Fein:

“If President Bush is totally unapologetic and says, ‘I continue to maintain that as a wartime President I can do anything I want—I don’t need to consult any other branches,’ that is an impeachable offense. It’s more dangerous than Clinton’s lying under oath, because it jeopardizes our democratic dispensation and civil liberties for the ages. It would set a precedent that … would lie around like a loaded gun, able to be used indefinitely for any future occupant.”

Remember former Nixon aide John Dean is on record via, so far, a Sen. Barbara Boxer letter previously quoted here, to wit:

"Mr. Dean, who was President Nixon's counsel at the time of Watergate, said that President Bush is "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense." Today, Mr. Dean confirmed his statement.

"This startling assertion by Mr. Dean is especially poignant because he experienced first hand the executive abuse of power and a presidential scandal arising from the surveillance of American citizens."

This is not a liberal issue alone. It is an American issue, and that of great significance.