Impeachment Update

I have no idea how reliable this source is, but the conservative-leaning Insight Magazine has published an article suggesting that the impeachment pot is starting to simmer:

Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst
Posted On: 1/23/2006

The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress.

"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an administration source said.

Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Administration sources said the charges are expected to include false reports to Congress as well as Mr. Bush's authorization of the National Security Agency to engage in electronic surveillance inside the United States without a court warrant. [...]

Of course they don't say who the "administration source" is, nor do we have any way of knowing the agenda of that source.  I would not be surprised if it turned out that this was a calculated leak, intended to assess the reaction to the "news."  The Insight article concludes:

Administration sources said Mr. Bush would wage a vigorous defense of electronic surveillance and other controversial measures enacted after 9/11. They said the president would begin with pressure on Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Bush would then point to security measures taken by the former administration of President Bill Clinton.

"The argument is that the American people will never forgive any public official who knowingly hurts national security," an administration source said. "We will tell the American people that while we have done everything we can to protect them, our policies are being endangered by a hypocritical Congress."

Part of their defense will be to say that Clinton did it too.  If that is part of their planned defense, they must be getting nervous.  Needless to say, it is no defense at all.  Plus, it does nothing about the part about submitting false reports to Congress.