For those of you who don't know the tale - Bentley is up for using state funds for his mistress.Gov. Robert Bentley's lawyer, Ross Garber, doesn't think much of ethics violations.
Impeachment, he said, is historically reserved for "very serious offenses."
I thought I heard him wrong Thursday, as he outlined efforts to slow down the impeachment schedule for Bentley. So I asked him again. Just to make sure.
"I - I might have misheard you," I said. "Did you just say 'You do not impeach for ethics violations?'"
But I heard right. It was what he said. It's why governors are rarely impeached, why nobody remembers exactly how to do it. Because impeachment is reserved for "serious offenses."
Oh, he acknowledged some ethics charges are serious, but some, he seemed to say, are ... meh.
And I couldn't think more about anything Garber was saying. I couldn't think of the motion he filed seeking a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee. I couldn't even process the reasonable questions he raised - like if Bentley was denied his constitutional right to due process.
I couldn't even laugh when Garber, who is well paid for his services for Gov. Bentley, tried to make hay before all the state press by pointing out that Jack Sharman, the lawyer heading the Judiciary Committee's impeachment effort, is making serious taxpayer jack.
I couldn't. Because he lost me with the "serious offenses."
I got news for you Mr. Garber. Alabama thinks an ethics violation is a pretty serious offense.
More:
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/03/say_what_bentley_lawyer_says_y.html
