McGovern: Impeach Bush & Cheney

South Dakota's George McGovern -- writer, bomber pilot, senator and presidential candidate -- wrote an illuminating column for Sunday's Washington Post. In it, he calls publicly for the impeachment of our fearful leaders -- and gives all the reasons why it's high time we did so. In the process, he says a few nice things about his old nemesis, Richard Nixon:

I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?

How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?

Read the rest at the Washington Post on the Jan. 6 op-ed pages.

I cast my first vote for president in the 1972 election. I hadn't thought about lately, but it just ocurred to me that it involved a race between two Westerners: Nixon from California and McGovern from South Dakota. I know that some consider S.D. more Great Plains that High Plains. But the western one-third of the state is more mountainous than many places in eastern Wyoming. And McGovern has written extensively about the region, most notably in his book about the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado.

What other presidential election has pitched West vs. West? We certainly won't have one this time, unless John McCain or Duncan Hunter is matched up against Bill Richardson or Mike Gravel (is he still in the race?). Not likely....