It looks like our impeachment efforts are making a real difference. Last week, when Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment for Dick Cheney, the Pentagon Post's Dana Milbank portrayed Kucinich as nuts. But if that was Karl Rove's way of trying to scare "respectable" Democrats away from Impeachment, that strategy backfired "bigtime," as Dick Cheney would say. Think Progress reports:

This morning on CBS’s Face the Nation, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) expressed frustration with the White House’s public rhetoric about wanting to reach a compromise over Iraq funding. “They say we’re willing to compromise,” he said. “And then we don’t get any compromise.”

“We’ve already compromised,” Murtha said. “And we need to make this president understand, Mr. President, the public has spoken. There’s three ways or four ways to influence a president. One is popular opinion, the election, third is impeachment and fourth is the purse.” Host Bob Schieffer followed up, pressing him on whether impeachment was a serious option on the table. Murtha responded, “I’m just saying that’s one way to influence a president.”

Obviously Murtha didn't call for Bush's impeachment today. But it is no accident that Murtha used the "I" word: he wanted to send a shot across Bush's bow, that he'd better start negotiating - or else.

And Murtha must have cleared his comments with Speaker Pelosi before his appearance, so one can safely conclude that impeachment is back "on the table" where it belongs.

If I were Bush, I'd start to worry seriously about impeachment. After all, it was Murtha who "walked point" on ending the war a year ago, and now the entire Democratic Party is united behind him. If Murtha says impeachment is "an option" today, tomorrow he could easily say impeachment is "under consideration," and before you know it, Articles of Impeachment will be introduced.

Murtha's comments are a huge step forward for the impeachment movement and for Congressional Democrats. Clearly Democrats believe the public is behind them, or Murtha wouldn't have floated the idea. Now if only progressive bloggers would echo Murtha's impeachment threats, the Corporate Media might start covering the nationwide impeachment movement.

Update 1: According to Night Owl, KPFA news producer Stephanie Hendricks says Rep. John Conyers is quietly working on impeachment.