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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

So You Want to Impeach the President

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First, let’s start with what the Constitution defines as offenses warranting impeachment and removal from office.  Those can be found in Article II, Section 4:

The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Treason and bribery are pretty straightforward, but what, exactly, constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors.  Here’s what former House Minority Leader (and former president) Gerald Ford (R-Michigan) said about them:

An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.

So, if you don’t like the president’s hair color?  Impeach!

Don’t like his speech?  Impeach!

Don’t like that his policies are helping our country recover from the disaster of the Bush years?  Impeach!

Don’t like that he supports equality?  Impeach!

Don’t like that he’s ended the wars and kept America safe?  Impeach!

Don’t like that the American people twice voted for him?  Impeach!

As long as you can get 218 members of the House of Representatives to set their hair on fire about something that annoys them about the President of the United States, you can go ahead and impeach him just because.  There doesn’t need to be any reason.  No matter what happened, and no matter who is responsible, just remember that it’s all the president’s fault; so just impeach!

And, Republicans, if you do carry through with your initial threats just remember that three presidents will have been impeached.  All three would have been Democrats impeached by partisan Republicans; and that would include impeaching the last two Democratic presidents.

Impeachment is designed for grave instances where the president refuses to cede power despite no longer being fit for office.  It is not designed as a political bludgeon used to bully a president from the other party.  The remedy for removing a president from office for policy disagreements is the ballot box, not the impeachment vote.

Besides, if you do impeach the president, what do you think will happen?  Do you think that 22 Senate Democrats will join you in voting to remove President Obama?  Do you think it will even get past the House managers and Chief Justice John Roberts parading in before Harry Reid makes a successful motion to dismiss the articles of impeachment and enter a directed verdict of acquittal?

Just admit that Barack Obama will be President of the United States until noon on January 20, 2017.  Then you can get your Benghazi crazy on again once Hillary Rodham Clinton finishes delivering her inaugural speech.


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/ 24 Comments

24 comments

  2. JanF

    Impeachment is designed for grave instances where the president refuses to cede power despite no longer being fit for office.  It is not designed as a political bludgeon used to bully a president from the other party.  The remedy for removing a president from office for policy disagreements is the ballot box, not the impeachment vote.

    They can’t win at the ballot box, Mets. That’s why they have to wield this particular bludgeon.

  3. JanF

    Perhaps they hope that impeaching the president will take people’s minds off the fact that the only thing that the Republican House has voted on over the last 30 months is to repeal Obamacare … 33 times.

    Or maybe not? G.O.P. Split Over Whether to Waste Time Investigating Benghazi or Repealing Obamacare

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)-A deep divide has emerged within the Republican Party over whether to waste Congress’s time investigating Benghazi talking points or repealing Obamacare, G.O.P. lawmakers confirmed today.

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), sounded the first discordant note at a press briefing this morning, telling reporters, “The time for wasting day after day investigating Benghazi is over. The American people are counting us to waste our time repealing Obamacare yet again.”

  4. Portlaw

    Besides, if you do impeach the president, what do you think will happen?  Do you think that 22 Senate Democrats will join you in voting to remove President Obama?  Do you think it will even get past the House managers and Chief Justice John Roberts parading in before Harry Reid makes a successful motion to dismiss the articles of impeachment and enter a directed verdict of acquittal?

    Think they, the Republicans, want to tarnish his reputation, ruin his legacy and tie him up so he doesn’t accomplish what the American people elected him to do. They don’t sound very patriotic to me. Not quite sure what we, the people, can do the stop them right now.

  5. DTOzone

    trying to get my outraged conservative fans (who seemingly are so brave with their guns, but quiver at the knees over the DOJ legally getting journalists’ phone records) to call for stronger media shield laws and stricter rules for the IRS in auditing groups.

    Nothing, only response I got- “You’re very good at changing the subject.”

    I said “When President Christie is doing the same thing, you’ll say it’s just post-9/11 reality.”

    The response “OK”

    This is about a personal vendetta. They don’t disagree with the action, just the guy doing it. It’s not genuine. This is about damaging his reputation and nothing else.

    It’s a civil war, we just haven’t fired the cannons yet.  

  7. JanF

    Eric Holder To Darrell Issa: Your Conduct Is ‘Unacceptable’ And ‘Shameful’

    Issa aggressively questioned Holder about the Obama administration’s discussions with Labor Secretary nominee Tom Perez, and suggested that there was a violation of the Federal Records Act that the Obama administration was covering up. Holder interrupted to dispute his claim.

    “No, no, no, that’s — I am not going to stop talking now,” Holder said.

    Issa called on the committe chairman to ask Holder to stop talking, but Holder refused.

    “It is inappropriate and too consistent with the way in which you conduct yourself as a member of Congress,” the attorney general said

    There is no shame if you are a House Republican. Really.

  8. Rashaverak

    An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.

    This was the rationale of the brainiac who tried to impeach Associate Justice William O. Douglas for, among other things, having published an article about folk music in Avant Garde magazine, and for allowing an extract of one of his books to be published in Evergreen magazine.

    http://www.dissidentvoice.org/…

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