Impeachment, Impeachable Offense, What is an Impeachable Offense?

What does it take to remove the President?

Now that Clinton has been impeached, what is an impeachable offense? What does it take to remove the President from office? Is lying under oath impeachable? Is perjury impeachable. Do we impeach Clinton for lying to the public? Do we impeach for cheating on Hillary? Do we impeach for getting a blow job? What about the Senate trial? People ask the question, "What does it take to impeach?" What are "High Crimes and Misdemeanors?" The answer is easier than you think.

Impeachment isn't a legal process. Impeachment is a political process. It takes 2/3rds of the United States Senate to remove the president from office. Therefore, an impeachable offense is anything you can get 67 members of the Senate to vote for. The Republicans have 55 members and the Democrats have 45. If all the Republicans voted for removing Clinton it would take 12 Democrats to agree. And that just ain't gonna happen.

The Senate is wasting its time. They should be legislating, not investigating. I say to Congress, do the job your supposed to do and leave the sex scandals to the soap operas.

This has been an impeachment in search of a crime by people who are out to get the President no matter what the costs. When they failed to find a crime they used a Perjury Trap to manufacturer one. And they failed to even do that. Now we are asked to reverse two elections and remove a president from office who has the support of 72% of the public because he was possibly tricked into lying about a blowjob? I think not!

No win for the Republicans!

Now that the Republicans have their impeachment what have they accomplished? Not much! Yes, it's embarrassing to the President, but it's not as bad as what he's already been through on August 17th when he admitted he had sex with Monica. The Republicans think that this will be a black mark in history on Clinton's record. That's probably the best they can hope for. It still takes 67 votes in the Senate to remove him from office and that isn't going to happen. And even if it did happen, Al Gore will become President and the Republicans gain nothing. So there is no possible scenario that makes the Republicans a winner. What amazes me is that they are too stupid to figure that out.

During this battle over impeachment, the Republicans have paid a high price. The 1998 elections were an election that the Republicans should have won big time. The estimates were gains as high as 50 seats. Some people predicted the extinction of the Democratic Party. But that didn't happen. The election became a referendum on Clinton and the people rallied around the President and instead of a big victory, the Republican suffered a stunning defeat. So stunned were the Republicans that it required a human sacrifice, and thus Newt Gingrich fell on the sword and Livingston became squeaker of the house.

Since the Republicans lost 5 seats in the House, and Newt having resigned, the newly elected Congress would never voted to impeach. Therefore it was necessary to bypass the will of the people and call back the do nothing congress for one last vote. The new Congress would never have passed any articles of impeachment. At least one of the 5 Democrat traitors wasn't reelected. The only think that mattered was to get Clinton and the will of the people was, and still is, and obstacle.

So, the Republicans have lost two Speakers of the House as a result of the Lewinsky scandal. Hard to see where their winning this battle, but I'm sure they believe they are. Meanwhile, Clinton's approval rating has jumped up again and the day after the impeachment vote, Clinton has 72% of the public on his side as the Republicans have to somehow get 67 Senators to defy 72% of the voters, good luck!

But it's the Principle!

The morally superior Republicans claim they stand on principle. "We're doing what's right!", they say patting themselves on the back as they look down their noses at us lowly sinners. Republicans fail to see that there is some principle in doing the work of the people rather than wasting a lot of time trying to get a symbolic defeat. Republican principles are a mystery to us lowly sinners. Maybe they could explain it to me, but I doubt I'd understand.

Because of Republican principles, Bob Livingston had to resign for the House. Hard to make a stand against sexual sins if your leader has had sex with a dozen women. So Livingston had to go. Makes you wonder why the Republicans didn't know about his sexual past. Did Livingston lie about it? Or were they too stupid to ask Livingston if there were any skeletons in his closet? Livingston claims he didn't lie, so what does that tell you? I hope that the next time they elect a Speaker of the House that they ask him if he's had any affairs.

Even though Livingston was mortally wounded, he wanted to make his political death count for something. So he claimed that his resignation was an example that Clinton should follow and resigned claiming to be doing the honorable thing. However, the politics of personal destruction is limited to just the Republican party and Livingston failed to realize that his example of resignation applied only to Republicans. Democrats believe in forgiveness and redemption. Republicans believe in shame and punishment.

Larry Flint claims to have dirt on 6 other Republicans including a "Big Fish" as he puts it. Following the Livingston example, one would expect that these other 6 Republicans will resign. After all, who's rules of resignation will they follow? Will they follow the Livingston example or the Clinton example? For instance, Missouri Senator Christopher Bond got divorced recently and it is rumored that infidelity was a factor. Bond has not yet confessed, but should it be revealed that he had affairs as the rumors suggest, what does he do? Does he agree with Clinton and reject the politics of personal destruction? Or does he fall on the sword for the good of his party? If all the Republican sinners came forward, confessed their affairs, and resigned from office, the Democrats would have the majority of both houses of Congress.

Remember that the "Livingston Rule" only applies to Republicans. Democrats accept sexual sins and believe that sex is private and a separate issue. We all know that Kennedy (all Kennedy's) have had affairs. So what? So if Larry Flint reveals that Barney Frank is gay, who cares! But the Republican's have this artificial sexual morality that's going to cost them a lot of seats as they apply their own standards to themselves.

The Republicans are Trapped

The Republicans think they have the President trapped. Not so! The President have the Republicans trapped. By voting for impeachment the Republicans are committed to a Senate trial and the objective of removing Clinton from office (and presumably replacing him with Al Gore). There are rumors that the Senate will consider censure or some other reasonable alternative to spare the country the ugliness of a prolonged trial. A reasonable solution isn't going to happen. Here's why:

The Republicans are out to get Clinton no matter what. The soul of the Republican party is owned by Big Tobacco, White Supremacists, and Fundamental Christian Extremists who want to rule the world and enslave the planet. No sacrifice is too great if it gets Clinton out of office. In order to do this, they are going to have to prove that Clinton lied under oath, and therefore 67 Senators are obligated to vote him out. Or, Republicans will get so ugly and disgusting that they will say Clinton must resign because of the ugliness. They already tried that and it didn't work. Therefore they will conclude that perhaps they didn't get ugly enough.

Thus the Republicans will be trapped into offending the public with a trial that the public clearly doesn't want; or offending their right wing supporters by having Clinton in their clutches and letting him get away. The right wing extremists will settle for nothing less than removing Clinton for office, destroying his family, and then persecuting him and his family until they are dead. These people are evil, and they have no shame.

However, among voters there are a lot of moderate Republicans, many of whom Voted for President Clinton and are deeply ashamed that the Republicans can't Move On. They want to get this over with and really don't want to hear any more about what Clinton does with his cigars and what that tastes like. This is likely to split the Republican Party in half with moderates either joining Democrats or forcing the right wing invaders our of the GOP.