When asked about her position on impeachment, Nancy Pelosi responded, “I’ve always said impeachment’s off the table. This is President Bush’s war, it’s Vice President Cheney’s war, and now it’s become the war of the Republicans in congress.”

Some might see her response as including a non sequitur. What does insisting that Bush and the Republicans own an unjustified illegal war have to do with impeachment being off the table? However, for those of us who have been following the Democratic leadership’s justifications for failing to hold this administration accountable, it makes perfect sense. Pelosi and the Democratic leadership believes that by leaving Bush/Cheney in office, and by continuing ‘their’ war, they’ll drive down Republican support and win the elections in 2008. In other words, Pelosi doesn’t hold Bush/Cheney accountable because that might stop the war in Iraq. And the war in Iraq is a good political tool for winning elections.

Therefore, I submit that by failing to pursue accountability, the rule of law, constitutional reinstitution, and subsequently the end to the Iraq war, Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership now own this war.