So, Clinton's bombing Iraq again. I'd just like to point out, in case you haven't already figured it out for yourself, that this is obviously due to the ongoing impeachment hearing, right? I mean, according to the logic used by all the commentators until now, that's really the only reasonable explanation. If you can't see that, you must be fooling yourself, that's all I can say.

Hmmmph.

If that happens, we're in trouble.

Rather than take the time to write something new -- 'cause I'm really not in the mood right now -- the following is part of an e-mail I wrote on December 17, shortly after the last strike on Iraq. Had this journal been up and running then, I would have posted it here. As it stands, I think it's still relevant.

As for MoveOn.Com... I think it sends the wrong message. I do feel that there are no real grounds for impeachment, as Diane so eloquently explains in her journal. But I have two problems with moveon.com's approach to the situation.

First of all, I don't think censure is a good idea, either. For one thing, I agree with the Republicans on this point (and this point only)-- censure is silly. It doesn't really mean anything. It is, at most, symbolic, and, if history is any guide, it'll only be reversed once the Democrats take over Congress again. So it's not really a reasonable option to offer.

But that is a minor reason for disliking censure. My main reason for being against it is that there are absolutely no grounds for it. And whether or not it has any practical legal effects, censure would at the least suggest that the President's sexual exploits are Congress's business, and that Starr's investigation was, in fact, run properly. That's just plain wrong.

Second of all, and much more importantly, moveon.com's very name reflects the reason why it's not likely to help much. The Republicans are banking on the belief that, even if they do impeach the President, and even if the public doesn't care for it, they will have moved on to other issues by the time the next elections come around. The American public has had a notoriously short attention span lately, and they're counting on that continuing.

Ironically, moveon.com's petition only encourages that point of view. Its petition suggests that the main reason people are upset about the impeachment proceedings is that they've having taken up too much of their time for the past couple of years, and they're tired of it pre-empting the soaps. Missing is the sense of outrage in Lizzie's journal entry of the other day, that Congress would presume to misuse its authority so egregiously. The message is simply that the American public wants this over with, and that censure is the quickest way out.

If I were out to get the President, the message I would take from this is that the public's attention span really IS pretty short, that a swift execution would serve their purposes just as well, and that nobody is really going to care about this in a couple of years.

What scares me is that they may turn out to be right.