Think that Democrats taking both houses of Congress means getting accountability for Bush and his underlings guilty of impeachable offenses and war crimes? Think again.

First came future Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, before the election, proclaiming that impeachment was "off the table." After the Democratic victory (and before all the votes had even been counted) came national Democratic chairman, Howard Dean, affirming this central Democratic message. Within the same week, the darling of progressive Democrats, John Conyers, in line to exert subpoena power as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, echoed the Pelosi/Dean party line.

Yes, this is the same John Conyers who a year ago issued the lengthy and detailed report, "The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Cover-ups in the Iraq War." (It was later updated to add "illegal domestic surveillance.") But, just days after the Democratic victory, Conyers "clarified" his position, which he said had been "distorted" and misunderstood. Although his report meticulously laid the grounds for impeaching the president, he agreed with Pelosi that "impeachment is off the table."

The Democratic Party leadership wants to make clear that the new majority party cannot be bothered with trifling matters like US government officials breaking international laws or committing impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors" in violation of the US Constitution. Even when it leads to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. This Congress has more important business to attend to, like ... well, who knows? We'll find out in January.

Clearly, Conyers was told that he'd have to toe the party line if he hoped to chair Judiciary; principle would have to give way to a centrist Democratic strategic calculation of offending no one.

One problem with the Dems' "non-offensive offensive" is that a recent Newsweek national poll showed 53 percent of Americans thought impeachment should be on the agenda (either as a "top" or "lower" priority).

But wait, maybe the clever centrist Dems have decided not to be fooled by such numbers. Maybe there is a method to their madness.

Maybe it's okay to offend the majority of people who believe in holding public officials accountable for breaking laws. After all, who else are they gonna vote for, the Green Party? Democratic leadership, in its infinite wisdom, has apparently decided it's most important not to offend that minority of voters who still cling to the basic righteousness of the Bush crusade. Maybe some of them can still be convinced to vote for a Democrat in 2008 if the Dems show they are willing to "let bygones be bygones."

WTF?!

Whether or not you think impeaching Bush is a winning strategy for the incoming Democratic majority in Congress, in light of all the damning evidence accumulated by Conyers (as well as a growing number of independent inquiries--see below), doesn't it seem that ruling out impeachment at the outset, which presumably means not gathering any evidence that demonstrates illegal activity by the Bush administration, is grossly irresponsible at best? And maybe colossally stupid politically? Why not just issue every administration official a "Get Out of Jail Free" card?

Once again, the Democratic Party has shown how to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. As a result, we all lose. Unless, of course, the majority of Americans can convince the new Democratic Congress to do its job and hold government officials accountable for breaking laws.

How? The usual: Organize to build public pressure. Contact our Congresscritters to demand accountability. Let Conyers know we think he was right the first time and should feel free to ignore Pelosi's triangulations.

Building pressure outside of Congress may not be a bad idea either. In Olympia, the Citizens' Movement to Impeach Bush/Cheney has collected over 2,000 signatures and has asked Olympia's city council to adopt a resolution calling for an investigation to launch impeachment proceedings. Municipal governments may be more responsive than Congress to public pressure. If a groundswell is created at local levels, Congress will eventually have to pay attention.

Let's get busy. The Democratic Party leadership has announced that it won't do the right thing without us.

(See www.afterdowningstreet.org for the "The Constitution in Crisis" and other damning arguments in favor of impeaching our War-Criminal-In-Chief.)