Dems throw red meat to the base

… and pledge a “probe” (but not impeachment – whew! wipes brow) if they take control of Congress in the fall elections:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats will launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration if they take control of Congress in November but are not out to impeach President George W. Bush, a top Democrat said on Sunday.

House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats would hold hearings on the use of intelligence in the lead-up to the Iraq war and investigate the high price of energy and prescription drugs if they win the extra 15 seats they need for a House majority in the mid-term elections.

But Pelosi denied Republican claims that her party would move quickly to impeach Bush.

“I said we’d be having hearings on the war, we’d have hearings. But I don’t see us going to a place of impeachment,” Pelosi said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Investigation does not equate to impeachment. Investigation is the requirement of Congress. It is about checks and balances.”

Riiiiiiiiight. “I don’t see us going to a place of impeachment.” Now that’s rather presumptuous of Rep. Pelosi, don’t you think? What she’s saying here is that “we’ll have a probe, but I don’t see us impeaching the President.” But aren’t probes of politicians generally designed to find out if there has been any willful wrongdoing on the part of the politician and whether or not he needs to be censured, hauled up on charges, and/or impeached? My translation of what Pelosi said is “we know he hasn’t done anything to impeach him over, but we’ll “probe” him to make the base happy.” Either that, or she’s lying when she says they aren’t looking to impeach the President in order to fool people who might actually take her at her word.

I hope the Republicans run with this and use it in their campaigning, just to show that the Dems plan to “probe” the President even though the House minority leader apparently either doesn’t believe Bush has done anything wrong or is pulling a fast one on the American people. Take your pick.

(Hat tip: Right Wing News)