Moore: ‘No chance’ of impeaching Bush

Here are today’s headlines from the Kansas congressional delegation:Rep. Dennis Moore (D) !(KC Star) The ‘I-word’ spreads, but most in politics dismiss the impeachment talk: A fresh survey by the American Research Group, a Republican group, found that 45 percent of respondents said they supported launching impeachment proceedings against Bush while 46 percent said they opposed such a move. A majority of respondents, 55 percent, said they wanted Vice President Dick Cheney out; 40 percent said they did not. Yet those in the know say that impeachment is as unlikely as snow this month on Muchow’s scorched fields. “I don’t think there’s a chance in the world,” said Rep. Dennis Moore, a Kansas Democrat.Sen. Pat Roberts (R)!(Aviation Week) Sen. Rockefeller Threatens GA Airspace Access: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) threatened Thursday to limit general aviation access to high-volume airspace if the GA community continues to oppose his legislation to establish a $25 per flight fee for turbine aircraft using controlled airspace. Rockefeller, along with Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), took center stage Thursday during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the future of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. … Grassley’s fellow Midwestern senator, Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), took exception to some of the comments regarding general aviation, complaining that the other senators’ introductory remarks were “45 minutes in favor of user fees” and not a “fair and balanced” assessment of the situation. Roberts lauded the essential role GA plays in meeting the country’s air transportation needs, citing the charitable and humanitarian work of several organizations, including the Corporate Angel Network. Calling GA operators “good citizens,” Roberts added, “I don’t know what we would have done without GA in Kansas” during recent floods. “GA is not unreceptive to an increase in the gas tax,” Roberts continued. “It’s not the fee; it’s the administrative costs and the structure of the user fee bureaucracy that the GA community is so concerned about.”Rep. Nancy Boyda (D) !(Congressional Quarterly) Democrats Eye Politics of Farm Bill: Now the House is knee-deep in writing a new farm bill (HR 2419), and the outlook isn’t as rosy as it was earlier this year. While House Agriculture Committee members squabble over money and plot to fend off threats from outside the panel to overhaul agricultural policy, Pelosi and her circle face a bigger dilemma: The outcome of this year’s farm bill could make or break the reelection of vulnerable freshman Democrats. … Walz, for example, unseated six-term Republican and subsidy champion Gil Gutknecht by a 5.6 percent margin in 2006. Between 2003 and 2005, soy, corn and dairy farmers in Walz’s district collected roughly $900 million in subsidies, about 2.6 percent of the national total, according to the Environmental Working Group’s subsidy database. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., is in a similar situation. She defeated an incumbent by a 3.5 percent margin and represents farmers who collected about $225 million in subsidies between 2003 and 2005. … Things are different in the districts represented by Agriculture Committee members Boyda, Walz and Indiana Democrat Brad Ellsworth, where it is crucial to keep producers of commodity crops from raising money to unseat them, the aide said. “The ones that benefit from the commodity money will throw you out of office,” the aide said. “You piss these guys off, they’ll make your life miserable.”