Sadly, Rashida Tlaib, apparently a fool as well as a freshman, has already shit all over the possibility of starting impeachment procedings in a way that gives it credibility by announcing immediately after her confirmation to the House,"We're going to impeach this motherfucker," possibly destroying the chance of it happening. Thank you, Rashida.Does the impeachment process remain on hold until such time as a president who displays pathological mendacity tells a lie with calamitous consequences? To take this view is to relegate impeachment to the function of an after-the-fact remedy, a cleaning of the barn after the horse is long gone. This is conceivably the result of a fundamental confusion over the function of impeachment. If a president is removed from office, the Senate must vote to “convict.” Impeachment then assumes the look and feel of a punishment, just desserts for offenses committed, rather than, in Madison’s words, a defense of the community against negligence, incapacity or perfidy. In fact, impeachment is a measure to protect against harm, not to exact rough constitutional justice for damage already done.
At the root of the problem is the wrong lesson learned from the constitutional history. The Founders did not bequeath a fixed conception of the role of impeachment, nor could they have done so. While preoccupied with abuse of power, the Founders were concerned less about the presidency than about the Congress. They took the legislative branch to be the “dangerous branch.” They did not and could not look ahead to the time when that would be far from true. They did not imagine a legislature so widely noted for its impotence and fecklessness, or an executive glorying in its massive powers and regularly and with considerable success asserting claims to still more. The process norms governing resort to impeachment have to be revised to meet the actual structure and relationship of our governing institutions. Impeachment is a defense against a dangerous presidency and it is in 21st century terms, not those of the 18th or 19th century, that the potential danger is best understood.
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So we come, inevitably, to the point where a president is so oblivious to his own limitations that he rejects—even appears to resent— experienced counsel and surrounds himself with family members, enablers, and others he screens for personal loyalty; who breaks laws and norms; who lies constantly, and who proudly announces that he is ready to put more confidence in his “gut” than in “anyone else’s brain.” It is peculiar for commentators, and self-destructive for the polity, to worry in these circumstances that an impeachment inquiry would precipitate a national nightmare or crisis. Which is the nightmare, which is the source of the crisis?
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The courts, the press, conscientious public servants and an articulate and committed opposition have put up a good fight. This president has not always had his way. But, a committed demagogue, he keeps trying.
In critical respects, he is getting results. He is hobbling the senior levels of key departments and agencies, striving to bend them to his personal and political purposes, by firing or driving out officials lacking the personal loyalty he craves and replacing them with the supine and unqualified. He has worked toward the moment when he is now firmly in charge, and neither expertise nor—as officials like former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have attested—the details of policymaking hold much sway.
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In these circumstances, for Congress to hold off on even a formal inquiry and hope for the best, is inconsistent with the defense of the national community, as Madison described that responsibility.
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An impeachment inquiry attacks this problem at its source. The initiation of the process is only that—a first step. But it is a step toward clearly and unapologetically framing the constitutional issues presented by this presidency. It also sends a clear message to the president. For Congress to launch an inquiry at least establishes that, whatever the outcome of the proceeding, this president’s conduct is not just his unique brand of politics but raises questions of a constitutional dimension. To pass over those questions out of misguided fear of the impeachment process risks setting a “precedent” of sorts: an invitation to a future president who is motivated to carry on in this fashion to do so, through the end of the term, without fear of constitutional accountability.
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The Committee today can follow its [Watergate] predecessors in these and other ways to lay a foundation for substantive inquiry. It can do much of the preliminary work behind closed doors, limiting if not extinguishing the opportunities for political grandstanding, and then release procedural and other documents for public discussion and debate before proceeding to call witnesses and gather testimony.
All of these steps serve to build gradual public trust in and understanding of the process and should help counter the shrill complaints of the president on Twitter and his most dedicated supporters. It also assures that a responsibly crafted process is in place to respond to further, even likely, developments as a result of the Mueller investigation, congressional investigations, and ongoing litigation over the president’s continuing private business interests. Of central importance is the credibility of the process, and it would be significantly enhanced if it is directed to fundamental features of this demagogic presidency, rather than apparently hurried into service by one or the other eruptions in the 24-hour, breaking news cycle.
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The method by which the president made his decision for a sudden and complete withdrawal from Syria, followed by the former Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ resignation, raised wholly legitimate concerns about his ability to carry out the affairs of state on matters of vital national security. But some of the most vocal critics seem to have been moved primarily by disagreement with the substance of the decision. This and similar responses to questionable or bad policy will open up the impeachment process to the charge that it is motivated by policy differences. The best protection against this criticism is to establish a principled, well-structured framework for bona fide deliberation and debate.
Just Security
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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