In an amazing feat of intellectual jujitsu, the White House and influential segments of the media have managed to construe the perjury and impeachment of a Democratic president -- and the eerie lock-step support of that president by Democrats in Congress -- as an hour of peril for, yes, the Republican party.
Almost alone in sensing danger for the Democratic party is former Democratic congressman Ben Jones of Georgia, who addressed his former colleagues in an eloquent letter last week that deserves a wider audience.
"Let me speak as a Democrat," Jones wrote, "one of 10 percent of Democrats (according to reliable polling) who believe that our president should be impeached. It is clearly a minority position in our party, but we are a party which has always fought for minority viewpoints, for inclusion, and for a diversity of ideas.
"I believe that our party is being corrupted by its support of a man who is not deserving of that support. Though Democrats may 'win' in the short term by succumbing to popular wishes, in the long term we will be in a moral desert, searching for the oasis of our soul. It is our job to clean our own wounds, and our job to lead when one of our own has erred. . . .
"A 'censure' vote is simply a way for members to pretend they have acted forcefully when in fact they have ducked the tough question, yea or nay. And a censure resolution that calls for punitive action of some sort would be a case of the legislative branch acting as a judicial branch in dealing with the executive. This would be a gross violation of the balance of powers and is clearly unconstitutional."
Maybe what the Democrats need most is a big tent.