When Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean declare that impeachment is off the table one has to ask, at what table are they sitting? Do they see the Bush administration as chairman of a board on which they serve? Is this an investor stockholder meeting that is being given arbitrary goodfella parameters?

When speaker Pelosi speaks about the "incompetence" of the president she is being polite and misleading. Neither she nor Howard Dean know in depth or in truth what created the decisions that have all our hands drenched in blood. They need to find out how the decision to invade Iraq happened and then decide what is on or off this odd, polished table at which we find ourselves having to sit quietly.

Accusations of "Incompetence" take both Bush and Pelosi off the hook. Bush can say - "If I only knew." Pelosi can be the school principal who will know how to correct the execution of a criminal decision. But until she calls it what it is her exact articulation of words will be worthless. The "new direction" and "change of course" chatter will be revealed as the hollow bromides they are unless and until she stops calling what happened "incompetence."

The arsonist who caused the most recent fires in California was tracked down as the fires were being fought. So too the culprits for this war need to be found, questioned and at least be relieved of their positions. And this can happen as and if the war begins to end. And as James Baker reports his findings and makes his suggestions someone from the newly elected congress might suggest that all war profits be returned to the US treasury. That would put a few scratch marks on the table.

The population of the United States also needs to do a kind of examination of conscience. 76% of Americans were for the war in Iraq in April 2003. Sterile and exhilarating at the same time, it was a light show whose victims were far away and remote in every way. The protestors and human shields emerge now as American heroes. The manipulated population might be waking up and the question of how could this happen to us is one we need to ask not only of ourselves but demand that the new congress ask the commander-in-chief.

While in Richmond, Virginia recently I saw a stunning piece of graffiti written in red - "Atone. Impeach. Now." It implies citizen culpability and power. We let this happen and we, through this newly elected congress, have a chance to atone. But taking the most powerful remedy off the table makes the table a set decoration and the people sitting at it actors mouthing words and playing pre-digested scenes.

These seemingly fraternal and "bi-partisan" assurances are insults not only to the voters but to the integrity of the American logistics of representative government. If a president dupes congress, and uses the military as hitmen for reasons that were never and still are not clear, then he needs to be asked serious questions. And if his answers reveal high crimes, then the constitution provides for that.

In fact, at this shiny, slippery table it's the constitution that should be engrained as the centerpiece. For awhile and for many dark and troubling reasons the president has kept it off and now the new speaker has decided to keep it off. But the question remains and needs to be asked again and again - at whose table do they think they're sitting?

Bill C. Davis is a playwright. www.billcdavis.com

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