Can the threat of impeachment backfire?

Karl Rove
Can the Republicans use the threat of impeachment (or censure) of Dick and the Bush to mobilize their seemingly currently demoralized base to insure their continued control of Congress?

Here's what the New York Times had to say Thursday about this:

"Republicans, worried that their conservative base lacks motivation to turn out for the fall elections, have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring or impeaching President Bush.

"The proposal this week by Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, to censure Mr. Bush over his domestic eavesdropping program cheered the left. But it also dovetailed with conservatives' plans to harness such attacks to their own ends.

"With the Republican base demoralized by continued growth in government spending, undiminished violence in Iraq and intramural disputes over immigration, some conservative leaders had already begun rallying their supporters with speculation about a Democratic rebuke to the president even before Mr. Feingold made his proposal.

"'Impeachment, coming your way if there are changes in who controls the House eight months from now,'
Paul Weyrich, a veteran conservative organizer, declared last month in an e-mail newsletter.

"The threat of impeachment, Mr. Weyrich suggested, was one of the only factors that could inspire the Republican Party's demoralized base to go to the polls. With 'impeachment on the horizon,' he wrote, 'maybe, just maybe, conservatives would not stay at home after all.'"

This seems like the latest political stratagem from commisar Karl Rove. But it says far more about the despicable state of the Republican Party today than anything else. It has been no secret since the coup of 2000 that put Dick and the Bush in power and the highly questionable results of the 2004 election that the GOP hierarchy will stoop to anything to conquer. The trick is very simple - scare the crap out of the base and create as much anxiety as possible. Remember the the threat of gay marriage just before the 2004 election. Have you heard anything about it since? You probably will as the 2006 election nears. Although the threat of a woman's right to control her own body (note: South Dakota) may serve the purpose this time around.
What's most important is for the left to not be diverted by this kind of unprincipled nonsense and remember that no president has ever more richly deserved impeachment that George W. Bush.