Oh Please!

I remember the ramp up to the impeachment of Richard Nixon. I was fascinated by the process and the content of that process. It was deliberate. It was accumulative. It was logical. It was stolidly progressing toward an end.


And then Nixon resigned. Certain of his fate and not wanting to be removed from office, he resigned and left the office to be filled by his Vice President. The nightmare was over. Long and grueling, the end of Nixon’s presidency was thankfully over. And for good reason.


Then Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Not at all like Nixon’s, the Clinton impeachment was done by a thousand howling dogs bent on removing the sitting president by hook or by crook. And embarrassment. They achieved the latter. The hook or crook, too. After all was said and done, the president had received a blow job in the Oval Office. That was not an impeachable offense. It is an offense of our public civility, but not of law and governance standards.


Now we have an impeachment of a sitting president who has done just about everything to be impeached. And yet he denies it. Wait a few minutes and he tweets the opposite. He is a victim of his own techno-quirks. And his ego.


The impeachment process advances steadily toward its conclusion. The crimes were political. They were also not allowed under the US Constitution. And so, the process is implemented to remove a person unfit for office as described in the Constitution.


Yet, his political supporters obfuscate and block all progress toward the impeachment. They claim it is political. Well, it is; he has violated the spirit and the law regulating political process. That’s why he is being impeached. The process, however, is not political. Only the republican party has defined it as such. They have done everything they can to cloud the process, scoff at clear evidence, and attempt to redefine the meaning of common words. Their efforts are political. The Democrats’ efforts are not. Their efforts are clearly directed by the Constitution.


Meanwhile, nothing much gets done by the Congress. They are blocking each other’s work. That too, is Constitutional. For all to see: the inmates of the institution of Congress are running amok and accomplishing nothing.


Impeachment will occur. The House will vote for it. It will become the indictment – bill of particulars – that will be sent to the Senate for trial. And that trial will take place. The trial’s end, sadly, will end badly for all. The impeachment will fail in the Senate because it is politically in control of the republicans. But then the Senate will have failed both the Constitution and the People of the US.


All because of political gamesmanship. Nonsense rules the affairs of humankind.


It is a wonder that the good of our nation continues in spite of its leadership. But then, that is what America is all about. Its people is the heart and soul of the nation, not its leaders. Those have failed their people.


It will thus be time for the people to speak again and set matters aright.


Time will bring justice. Time will heal a broken nation. It is up to all of us to make this a reality.


November 26, 2019