Impeach Bush movement is payback time once more

THE tears on the cheeks of the Democrats aren’t even dry yet and already the hearts of some of the most unforgiving among them are burning with thoughts of impeachment.

Bushwhacking, as it has come to be known, has become a cottage industry in cyberspace, where websites have sprouted like poppies in the desert, demanding the ouster of that wily old Texan, George W. Bush.

One site explains how to go about the process of impeachment, another offers petitions to circulate among the discontented, a third has created a draft impeachment resolution to forward to your congressional representative, and all of them will gladly sell you T-shirts, bumper stickers, lawn signs, sweat shirts and badges, or accept your generous donations in the drive to send Bush back to Texas.

VoteToImpeach.org claims that 472,677 people had voted as of midday Thursday in a website referendum to do just that.

What this all amounts to, as I see it, is an effort by the Democrats to do to Bush what the Republicans tried to do to Bill Clinton after the Democrats tried to do it to Richard Nixon. When one thinks of it in cosmic terms, it’s kind of like a dog chasing its own tail in an effort to devour itself.

In Santa Cruz, a town known more for its seashore than its political pizazz, the City Council has asked Congress to investigate impeaching the president for his handling of the war in Iraq. Arcata, Calif., which is a little north of Eureka, was considering doing the same thing. Both are college towns and should not be taken too seriously, but at least they’re trying. Can Berkeley and Palo Alto be far behind?

I came face to face with a proponent of impeachment one Saturday morning in Calabasas, across the street from the town’s weekly farmers market. A man named Andrew Moriarty was standing at a table covered with books published during the recent presidential campaign, which accused Bush of everything from lying to Congress to scratching his behind in public.

The books decorated the table like a mosaic of recrimination, next to a small stack of petitions that Moriarty was asking the public to sign. Mostly, he was being ignored by shoppers struggling to carry their bags full of oranges, apples, broccoli and fingerling potatoes.

That didn’t dampen his effort one bit. To anyone who would pause even slightly to wonder if he was giving away anything free, he would gladly explain that Bush lied to Congress about the weapons of mass destruction that were supposedly buried somewhere in Iraq, and since perjury is an impeachable offense he should be booted out of office.

A 42-year-old house painter and handyman (except for electrical or plumbing problems, which he doesn’t handle), Moriarty has been out there for eight or nine months because he believes that Bush is a really bad guy. He’s read a lot of the books on the table and is convinced that their condemnation of America’s 43rd president is justified.

He became politicized, he says, when the twin towers went down in flames, deciding that Bush’s policies and a quest for oil caused the terror in New

York and ultimately sent the U.S. stumbling into war. The lack of what became known as WMDs in Iraq really sent him over the edge.

The books on his table are important sources of information, Moriarty says, because they represent individual viewpoints, which he believes solidifies the case against the president. “How can 20 authors all talking about Bush war crimes be part of any agenda?” he asks.

So far, he has turned in petitions bearing 500 names to the L.A. office of Rep. Henry Waxman, urging him and other representatives to begin impeachment proceedings. And, he says, he’s not going to quit until Bush is out of office.

There is a tendency to mock anyone who is out there throwing pebbles to topple a giant, but I don’t agree with it. I remember only too well some years back watching a scoffer confront two old ladies at a table in front of a store called Gemco, which is no longer in existence. They were taking names on petitions to lower state property taxes.

The scoffer was denigrating their efforts to a degree that his level of derision had become insulting, which the ladies politely ignored. Out of pique and resentment, I moved between him and the women and signed the petition, even though I too had doubts it would ever go anywhere.

I learned later that it was being sponsored by an organization headed by a loud, bullheaded old reformer named Howard Jarvis. In 1978 the measure went on the ballot as Proposition 13 and passed by a two-thirds majority.

I’m not convinced that impeachment as a political tool is either wise or moral, but I am also not convinced, given the number of people who voted against Bush, that it won’t have an effect in Congress or among the unforgiving Democrats.

I just hope it doesn’t cause such chaos in the system that, like the dog after his tail, we end up devouring ourselves.

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Al Martinez’s column appears Mondays and Fridays. He’s at al.martinez@latimes.com.