So long as the Bush Administration remains in place, there's no presumption of good faith, making any bailout plan politically unpalatable.

The first order of business thus becomes impeachment and removal, with a saner Republican taking the reins as a caretaker until Obama takes office in January.

Constitutionally, the steps would be...

  1. Pelosi resigns as Speaker.

  2. Consensus caretaker elected Speaker, with Democratic support.

  3. Removal of Bush, Cheney

  4. Pelosi resumes Speakership.

I'd nominate veteran Wisconsin Rep. Tom Petri, who voted against the latest bailout plan, but is open to a more carefully negotiated replacement. For the last 15 years he's been one of the least partisan House Republicans, which cost him the Chairmanship of the Transportation Committee in the years of Republican control of that body.

Below, his Release on yesterday's bailout vote.

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It doesn't get much more visionary and ambitious than Al Gore's recent speech on energy and climate change, and this sentence in particular:

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

If you missed it, you can find the full text here or read a helpfully annotated version here.

My only quibble with this fantastic speech was that Gore said little about the transportation sector, which is the second largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Changing our transportation policies and funding priorities could greatly help us address the climate change emergency. More on that after the jump.  

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