Quick rundown of how impeachment works

[jmowreader]

Let's throw out a couple of fairly implausible scenarios:

Scenario 1: In next year's elections, we get enough non-DINO Democrats in the House to send an impeachment to the Senate and a combination of non-DINO Senate Dems and Republican Senators Who Have Had Enough Of His Shit to get rid of Numb-Nuts.

or

Scenario 2: The Republicans decide that if they don't get rid of Little Nero, their presence in Congress will be reduced to about 30 impervious Representatives and the Republican senators who aren't up for re-election in the 2006 cycle. They ask Shrub to step down, he refuses, and they're left with Plan B: he's their cocksucker, they have to deal with him.

How, then, would an impeachment work? And remember, there is NOTHING in the Constitution that says you can't impeach an entire administration in one pass. Practical considerations say doing it would be a near-impossibility, but it's legal.

Step 1 is for the person you want to impeach to do something that rises to the level of impeachable conduct. Bush commits, on average, five impeachable offenses between the time he puts on his bunny slippers and the time he gets up from the breakfast table then thirty more before lunch, so Step 1 is no problem.

Step 2 is for an investigation to take place. When the Republicans impeached Clinton they spent $70 million sending FBI agents through Arkansas mobile home parks looking for women whom may have had connubial relations with the Commander in Chief before he was elected, had Secret Service agents rifle the First Lady's underwear, and otherwise investigated Clinton's every waking and resting moment since his voice deepened at the age of 13. (For that money we learned that he sucks at land trading and that he invented the blowjob.) Investigating Bush isn't going to be nearly that hard--get a transcript of the pre-war State of the Union Address and highlight all the counts of perjury before Congress. How much will this investigation cost? How much does a case of highlighters cost?

Step 3 is for one Representative to drop a bill of impeachment into the hopper. The one against Clinton was cosponsored by most of the Republicans, but it really doesn't have to be.

Step 4 is the impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives. A simple majority refers it to the Senate for...

Step 5, the Senate impeachment trial. If a two-thirds majority to convict is reached (67 Senators), the impeached party is out on his ass and eligible to be taken to criminal proceedings. The Chief Justice serves as president of the Senate, but no other Supreme Court justices participate.

There's no Supreme Court participation save the Chief Justice, and he doesn't get a vote. Nor, apparently, is he allowed to set aside the decision of the Senate.

Hence, Bush can pack that Supreme Court with far-right jurists and it won't save him.

[mcscajun]

1. If only it were that simple.

I'll give you Step 1. No argument there.

Step 2: We need a genuine investigation, and many of us here are screaming to our Senators and Reps for one. Don't be flip; it'll take more than a case of highliters, but that's a good place to start.

Steps 3 and 4. The bill would have to get OUT of committee in the House. Don't hold your breath on that one unless we truly re-take the House with a clear majority and control the committees. (OR as in the old cartoon "And here a miracle happens..." and the Republicans Wake The Fuck UP!)

Step 5. See Steps 3 and 4. We need that two-thirds majority. And if Chief Justice Roberts is in place, his rulings on the admissibility of evidence and on procedural questions would have great influence on the outcome.

:sigh: Would that it were otherwise.

[MadeinOhio]

3. After reading this I can't see another reason why not:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509040369sep04,1,4144825.story

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/8815

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Lethal_chaos_Law_professor_describes_scene_at_New_Orleans_ho_0905.html

[jmowreader]

11. Step 2 is good enough for the impeachment

After Bush is out of office they can throw him in jail and start a serious investigation. We need something quick and decisive to take him to Congress for impeachment, and his lies in the SOTU are good enough.

Time is of the essence here, mcscajun; the longer we dally around, the longer Bush remains in office and the more damage he can do.

I personally can't see a reason why the "impeachment"--which is necessary before his case can move into the criminal courts--should take more than a month. The fucker lied through his teeth to start a war, the majority of the American people know he did, it's provable and it's impeachable.

Now, as to step 3. The only way Bush really goes into the impeachment process is if he becomes the GOP version of Coleridge's Albatross. At that point they will WANT to impeach him because it's going to be the only way to save their sorry asses. If this happens, not only does the committee pass along the bill, but it's accepted wholeheartedly by the majority.

Okay, think back to 1974 and Nixon. I believe the Republican Party told him to resign to save himself the horrors of being impeached--what he had done demanded he be impeached and removed, and the GOP's sense of decorum (the impeachment process was designed so that your political enemies could get rid of you if you screwed up badly enough, not so that the members of your own party could do it) prohibited them from impeaching one of their own. In this case a simple resignation, followed by a quickie pardon, is not acceptable; he must be made to answer for his crimes.

[MadeinOhio]

12. I think he has become more....

Than the albatross and very soon will be on the brink. Repubs abandoned him and Cheney in droves and the only ones left be the racists like Tom Delay and Norm Coleman who are under investigation.

So the question is, whos going to get the dirty work going and come on down? :think:

[MadeinOhio]

2. Here's another way to look at it:

Act of deriliction of duty by the administration, is enough of a federal offense to begin proceedings.

1) To begin proceedings, we get Conyers and some others to circulate signed documents everywhere so that nearly EVERYONE in the US can sign them, similar to IMPEACHBUSH.org and get it co-sponsored everywhere.

Get highlights in the back of it and so forth.

2) After doing all of this have someone from the House introduce the articles, preferrably a republican and begin the proceedings.

3) Get the investigation to go completely IMPARTIALLY, this is the toughest part!!!! We have to put feet to the fire to make sure the investigation, supplemented by evidence we already have goes completely without fail and is NOT a whitewash!

4) Begin hearings and then impeach and remove them from office.

End of QUESTION! To get the ball rolling, slam every represenative you know to get someone to begin a CAMPAIGN!!!!!
http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm

It can even be a REPUBLICAN!!! But either way, that person must help start a PR campaign for the word "impeach".

[FloridaPat]

4. Big repub problem with impeaching * - once the trial starts it will be the

end of the repub party. There has been so much real treason and real crimes done by this group that if it all got out no one would vote for the repubs for hundreds of years. So the repub congress is stuck between a rock and a hard place. * and his group are not going quietly into the night, even in 2008.

[MadeinOhio]

6. One thing is Hastert would have to be removed, I'm guessing just resigning

Forcing him to stand down after his criminal offenses related to Sibel Edmonds case. Then the Repubs and Dems would move on it, not all the Repubs committed treason but a number of them covered it up like about ten of them....

And after seeing this it has GOT to be mobilized:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9216831/#050905

[Pepperbelly]

5. 2/3's majority in the Senate ...

this will NEVER happen with the Democratic Party in the minority and it is would unlikely happen if we were in a marginal majority either.

On edit, do you REALLY think that Dealy or Hastert would let this see the light of day in the house or that a committee would even hold hearings?

[Silverhair]

7. Whatever you are drinking - share it. NT

[Brother Buzz]

8. Gerald Ford on impeachment:

"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."

[Wizard777]

9. Make sure your guy is in charge of it.

It's official! They smell the storm in the air and are scrambling to save their own asses. He's through playing guitar and now he's playing chess. Roberts is the Backdoor man. If it's going to be done File now. The First thing SCOTUS must decide is if Bush can Appoint his own Judge for his own trial. Magna Carta, Anyone?

[MadeinOhio]

10. No shit, I'm glad you all saw it sooner...

The "I" word is official....Bush is fleeing for his political/civil life and so he wants to put a yesman in charge to overturn any indictments!

:grr: :grr:

[brettdale]

13. What Happens If Fitzgerald indicts Bush?

What Happens If Fitzgerald indicts Bush?

[MadeinOhio]

15. Both he and Cheney go down.n/t

[Imagevision]

14. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ROBERTSON IS APPOINTED The Chief Justice

HOW CAN PARTISAN NOT PREVAIL WHEN THE JUDGE PRESIDING IS HIRED BY BUSH?