Most North Dakota media pundits missed the real point about Rep. Earl Pomeroy's hostile reaction to the military mom who cornered him on his failure to support presidential impeachment at this critical time in the life of our republic.

Pomeroy falsely ranted that "the people that I represent … are against impeaching the president," but newspaper coverage twisted the whole Pomeroy Internet video flap. Headlines reporting the incident should have read something like "Pomeroy insults constituents" (not "Pomeroy calls Bush 'clown'").

It was not Pomeroy's clown reference that was offensive. What was offensive and demagogic was Pomeroy's accusing a good share of his own constituents of "radical partisanship" and being "really at the fringe of things."

For the most part, North Dakotans are just like the rest of the nation's citizens, and many more of us support impeachment than oppose it. A July 6 American Research Group poll confirmed this, and an MSNBC poll of more than 487,000 people recently revealed a stunning 88 percent in favor of impeachment.

Many North Dakotans, as responsible citizens, have done our homework. We can cite specifics of how the current administration has trampled the Constitution they swore to uphold by setting the treacherous precedent that the presidency is above the law.

Why are Americans calling for impeachment at this time? Because Bush and Dick Cheney have desecrated the Constitution.

The need to impeach is based not on a narrow, personal drive to punish Bush and Cheney, rather the need to protect the future of the republic from an overreaching executive.

On July 13, PBS's "Bill Moyers Journal" featured an interview with two highly respected constitutional experts: John Nichols, the Washington correspondent for the Nation, and Bruce Fein, a decidedly conservative constitutional scholar who served in the Justice Department during the Reagan administration.

Both men explained that because the nation is now in a constitutional crisis, there is a compelling need for impeachment proceedings to halt the monarchical-executive stance of this administration. Both also criticized members of Congress for renouncing their duty to oversee critical checks and balances. According to Fein, in this case impeachment is "not an option. It's an obligation when they take that oath to faithfully uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. … There is no longer any statesmanship."

It is time for Earl Pomeroy to show that he cares more about the nation than he does about either his party or his own re-election. It's time for him to attempt to alleviate our country's dearth of statesmanship.