Reply #50: No; Republican lawmakers want to appeal to Republican voters most. [View All]

Breaking ranks and supporting the impeachment of a Republican president would be political suicide for a Republican senator - they'd be branded a traitor, and they'd never make it through their next primary. This would be even truer if they voted to impeach without having previously supported it, so anyone who was going to do so would publicise that there was at least a possibility of it before hand, so the claim that we can't know whether they will or not until it comes to a vote is simply false.

Moreover, a succesful impeachment of Bush would be an admission by the Republicans that they as a party had massively screwed up; it would tarnish every one of them. They're far, far better of trying to make the best of a bad job and defend Bush's and their legacy until it stops being an issue - remember that 45% of the electorate voted for them even now.

We can, and do, know that the Republicans will (or rather would, because thankfully the Democratic leadership have better sense than most DUers) not break ranks to support impeachment.