I am fairly sure that the political landscape would be vastly different if we hadn't been through an impeachment debacle 8 years ago. The national mood, while anti-Bush, seems to be even more anti-impeachment -- or if not anti, at least "oh, let's not go THERE again." I'm not a conspiracy nut so I won't suggest that the previous impeachment was groundwork for protecting subsequent prsidents' misdeeds, but I do think this administration has taken every bit of slack offered and then some.