Props to Daily Show & firedoglake

The establishment line from the Democrats in Congress goes something like this: Censure and Impeachment are never going anywhere as long as the Republicans control both houses. Help us win and then we'll talk about it. If we say anything now, we might arouse the Republican base to come out and vote in the upcoming election. We wouldn't want to do that now, would we. So be vewwy quiet. I mean we'd love to do something about Bush, but we mustn't rock the boat (yet).

Why they don't care about arousing the Democratic base is a mystery. The Republicans will do quite well at arousing their own base through the hot-button issues of abortion and gay marriage. All they need to do is get a referendum up on the ballot and the wingnuts will come a runnin'

Meanwhile there's a solid plurality in the country for Censure. And (astonishingly) 29& of Republicans also support censure.

I'll throw to firedoglake to reinforce this argument with citations from Russ Feingold's appearance last night on the Daily Show (the clip is on Crooks and Liars). It's a simple case really: just stop calculating and stand up to do the right thing. Now.

More later...