Deterrence

I'm curious what Ezra Klein's thought is here--he says that impeachment of either Bush or Cheney would be a bad idea, but that the media should be discussing the possibility more. With a slim-majority and near-majority favoring Cheney's and Bush's respective impeachments, the media obviously should be paying attention, but there's other reasons why it's important. The Scooter Libby pardon shows that the administration will resist almost any attempt to restrain its actions. Just as in diplomatic negotiations, leaving all the options on the table is a good idea. Maybe if the MSM was regularly discussing impeachment, the administration would pretend to care about public opinion. If there weren't a case for impeachment, this wouldn't be a defensible tactic, but as Brad Delong has pointed out, there's precedent for viewing this abuse of the pardon as grounds for impeachment.