As we try to get a handle on the myriad of crimes of the Bush-Cheney Regime, we wonder if even a Democratic-controlled Congress would seriously pursue the nuclear option of impeachment. And that is because the recent Clinton impeachment fiasco may be working as a subtle, or even subliminal, psychological brake on this issue.

In other words, perhaps the real damage of the GOP witch-hunt against Clinton, orchestrated at the top level by the likes of Gingrich and DeLay, was not the utter abuse of the impeachment clause of the Constitution, for what was at best the political equivalent of jay-walking.

Although that was bad enough, maybe the more serious fallout was to so discredit or “dumb-down” the impeachment tool, to the point that it diminished the public appetite or tolerance for another such battle, especially so soon – even when entirely justified on the merits.

This is not to say that those GOP know-nothings and their right-wing supporters such as Richard Mellon Scaife were necessarily that shrewd or calculating. We shudder at the thought of even such a back-handed compliment.

But to the extent that they somehow managed to even partly inoculate George W. Bush from impeachment for true “high crimes and misdemeanors,” perhaps we have to tip our hat to the enemy, and acknowledge their brilliant Macchiavellian maneuver, even if it was purely accidental.