Indispensable Remedy: The Broad Scope of the Constitution’s Impeachment Power

[OfTheCross]

In all of the back and forth of the last few weeks I've come across this notion a lot.

Some people try to defend the President by saying that he hasn't committed any crimes.

Or, they'll ask, 'what crimes has he committed?'

But let's be clear here. Criminal behaviour/activity is not necessary for impeachment.

In practice, impeachment has never been limited to cases of perfidy alone. In its comprehensive 1974 report, “Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment,” the House Judiciary Committee impeachment inquiry staff identified three categories of misconduct held to be impeachable offenses in American constitutional history: abuse of power, using one’s post for personal gain, and “behaving in a manner grossly incompatible with the proper function and purpose of the office.” The House has the power to impeach — and the Senate to remove — a federal officer whose conduct “seriously undermine(s) public confidence in his ability to perform his official functions.”32

cato

[skeeter]

Your premise is laughable on its face.

If no high crime or misdemeanor is in evidence then presumably the majority in congress can impeach the president because they're bored, they don't like his singing voice, or their party lost the last election (as the rats are doing here).

Go peddle that offal somewhere else.

[OfTheCross]

Your premise is laughable on its face.

If no high crime or misdemeanor is in evidence then presumably the majority in congress can impeach the president because they're bored, they don't like his singing voice, or their party lost the last election (as the rats are doing here).

Go peddle that offal somewhere else.

Gerald Ford made a similar comment...but I'm still right.


Ford, then the House minority leader, declared, “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” At the time, he was leading the charge to impeach Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a staunch liberal he accused of financial impropriety.

[skeeter]

Gerald Ford made a similar comment...but I'm still right.


Ford, then the House minority leader, declared, “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” At the time, he was leading the charge to impeach Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a staunch liberal he accused of financial impropriety.

The article you posted reflected how the scale for impeachment is sliding. Is what qualifies as impeachable being loosened? Yes. But that is NOT the original intent of the founders. In fact it’s what they feared would happen.

The left thinks the world will end in 12 years due to global climate change. Trump doesn’t believe in man made global climate change. Ergo he presents an existential threat to the survival of the nation and should be removed from office.

The reality is putting the nation through an impeachment ordeal over a fevered leftist fantasy and rendering the nation leaderless is the real threat.

Insanity. Your definition of what is an appropriate cause for impeachment stands logic on its ear.

[OfTheCross]

The article you posted reflected how the scale for impeachment is sliding. Is what qualifies as impeachable being loosened? Yes. But that is NOT the original intent of the founders. In fact it’s what they feared would happen.

The left thinks the world will end in 12 years due to global climate change. Trump doesn’t believe in man made global climate change. Ergo he presents an existential threat to the survival of the nation and should be removed from office.

The reality is putting the nation through an impeachment ordeal over a fevered leftist fantasy and rendering the nation leaderless is the real threat.

Insanity. Your definition of what is an appropriate cause for impeachment stands logic on its ear.

Incorrect. This is precisely the intent of the fathers. Some of the impeached while they were still alive were impeached for lesser crimes/misdemeanors

Look at those first few impeachments and the charges they faced

https://history.house.gov/Institution/Impeachment/Impeachment-List/

[XenaLee]

Gerald Ford made a similar comment...but I'm still right.


Ford, then the House minority leader, declared, “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” At the time, he was leading the charge to impeach Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, a staunch liberal he accused of financial impropriety.

Ahem.....

Congressional Interpretation

The first general school of thought is that the standard enunciated by the Constitution is subject entirely to whatever interpretation Congress collectively wishes to make:

"What, then, is an impeachable offense? The only honest answer is that 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..." Congressman Gerald Ford, 116 Cong. Rec. H.3113-3114 (April 15, 1970).

This view has been rejected by most legal scholars because it would have the effect of having the President serve at the pleasure of Congress. However there are some, particularly in Congress, who hold this opinion.

https://litigation.findlaw.com/legal-system/presidential-impeachment-the-legal-standard-and-procedure.html

[OfTheCross]

Ahem.....

Look at those first few impeachments and the charges they faced

https://history.house.gov/Institution/Impeachment/Impeachment-List/

It's not always an actual crime.

History is your teacher.


In its comprehensive 1974 report, “Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment,” the House Judiciary Committee impeachment inquiry staff identified three categories of misconduct held to be impeachable offenses in American constitutional history: abuse of power, using one’s post for personal gain, and “behaving in a manner grossly incompatible with the proper function and purpose of the office.”

Those are our precedents.

[XenaLee]

Look at those first few impeachments and the charges they faced

https://history.house.gov/Institution/Impeachment/Impeachment-List/

It's not always an actual crime.

History is your teacher.


In its comprehensive 1974 report, “Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment,” the House Judiciary Committee impeachment inquiry staff identified three categories of misconduct held to be impeachable offenses in American constitutional history: abuse of power, using one’s post for personal gain, and “behaving in a manner grossly incompatible with the proper function and purpose of the office.”

Those are our precedents.

Yeah, uh.... no.   Here's your problem.   Most Americans have access to the internet and have knowledge of how rabidly partisan this entire fiasco put on by the rats has been.   Even folks that did not vote for or support Trump are seeing what the Democrat hacks are up to and disapprove.   There's probably only about a third of hard-core leftists that support what Pelosi & Co. are doing and have done.   Most are reveling in having more money to spend, no shortage of jobs to apply for and a resultant booming economy in which to raise their kids.   Most of those folks do not want to go back to the deliberate stagnation that the commie left always brings to America.

Hell, most even remember the Misery Index that Jimmy Carter inflicted us with.   Bill Clinton had a lame duck presidency, with Republicans in control of Congress.... resulting in a balanced budget finally, via Newt's Contract With America.   Bubba took the credit, of course, but he had to be dragged, kicking and screaming to finally vote approval (he vetoed the first time) for that overwhelmingly popular GOP bill.   America won, the Democrats lost. 

And then under GWB I remember economists calling it the "Goldilocks Economy"... not too hot, not to cold, just right.... which the idiot left media all pointedly ignored and refused to report on.   If not for the internet and talk show radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, nobody would have known.   But we did know and we know one helluva lot more now.....much to the chagrin of the radical left DemocRats.   Much like we know how the Democrats deliberately melted down and collapsed the economy under Bush so they could blame him and regain power.   And it worked.  It proved they are willing to trash the entire nation just to get back in the WH.   But it won't work again. 

BECAUSE WE KNOW.  And they can try it again at their own peril.

[OfTheCross]

Yeah, uh.... no.   Here's your problem.   Most Americans have access to the internet and have knowledge of how rabidly partisan this entire fiasco put on by the rats has been.   Even folks that did not vote for or support Trump are seeing what the Democrat hacks are up to and disapprove.   There's probably only about a third of hard-core leftists that support what Pelosi & Co. are doing and have done.   Most are reveling in having more money to spend, no shortage of jobs to apply for and a resultant booming economy in which to raise their kids.   Most of those folks do not want to go back to the deliberate stagnation that the commie left always brings to America.

Hell, most even remember the Misery Index that Jimmy Carter inflicted us with.   Bill Clinton had a lame duck presidency, with Republicans in control of Congress.... resulting in a balanced budget finally, via Newt's Contract With America.   Bubba took the credit, of course, but he had to be dragged, kicking and screaming to finally vote approval (he vetoed the first time) for that overwhelmingly popular GOP bill.   America won, the Democrats lost. 

And then under GWB I remember economists calling it the "Goldilocks Economy"... not too hot, not to cold, just right.... which the idiot left media all pointedly ignored and refused to report on.   If not for the internet and talk show radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, nobody would have known.   But we did know and we know one helluva lot more now.....much to the chagrin of the radical left DemocRats.   Much like we know how the Democrats deliberately melted down and collapsed the economy under Bush so they could blame him and regain power.   And it worked.  It proved they are willing to trash the entire nation just to get back in the WH.   But it won't work again. 

BECAUSE WE KNOW.  And they can try it again at their own peril.

ok...

Your opinions aside, the fact is that criminal behaviour/activity is not necessary for impeachment.

[XenaLee]

ok...

Your opinions aside, the fact is that criminal behaviour/activity is not necessary for impeachment.

It actually is required.....

in the context of public opinion on what the Democrats are doing, though....

and in the context of the backlash and punishment that the American public will inflict upon the rats next year at the election booth.   People are pissed (I'm one of them).... and that will only get worse.

[OfTheCross]

It actually is required.....

in the context of public opinion on what the Democrats are doing, though....

and in the context of the backlash and punishment that the American public will inflict upon the rats next year at the election booth.   People are pissed (I'm one of them).... and that will only get worse.

Who knows...polls were saying that most Americans support impeachment. But we don't have to speculate, there's an election in 12 months.

At least we agree that legally, Democrats are just to impeach.

[XenaLee]

Who knows...polls were saying that most Americans support impeachment. But we don't have to speculate, there's an election in 12 months.

At least we agree that legally, Democrats are just to impeach.

Democrats are cutting off their political noses to spite their political faces.   They're just stupid that way.