This Impeachment Process Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test

Prior to the current impeachment effort, twice it made it to the Senate for trial – President Andrew Johnson (1868) and President William Clinton (1998).

In between, there were four other attempts to impeach a U.S. president – John Tyler (1843); James Buchanan (1860); George Bush (2008).  None made it to the floor of the House of Representatives.  In 1974, Nixon resigned before the charges were filed.

Our founding fathers deliberately made the process difficult because they suspected if they didn’t, we’d see it happen frequently.  Section 4 of Article II of the Constitution states that The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeach for and conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.  Article I, Paragraph 5 Section says The House of Representatives … shall have the sole power of impeachment.  Section 3, paragraph 6 gives the Senate the power to try all impeachments.  The Constitution requires two-thirds of the members of the Senate to vote in favor of removal.  That has happened only once – President Johnson – and he stayed in office.

Why is this review of the language in the Constitution necessary.  If you listen to the media, one would get the impression that assuming the house brings charges against the president, he must leave office.  That is simply not true.

So doesn’t the current process pass the smell test?

One, the whistleblower statutes require the individual filing the complaint must have first-hand knowledge of the crime.  This man doesn’t.  As it turns out, he has a long-term relationship with Joe Biden.  There’s more evidence suggesting the complaint was politically motivated.

Two, before he filed his complaint, the whistleblower went to Adam Schiff.  There’s a well-defined process for these types of complaints and why wasn’t it followed.  Hint, it doesn’t start with going to a Congressman.

Three, the rules the House of Representatives used in prior impeachment attempts were not good enough for Speaker Pelosi or Adam Schiff, so they voted to change them to make it easier to bring charges.  Why?  A cynic would say because they knew that the current effort wouldn’t meet the criteria needed to bring charges.

Four, in prior impeachment attempts, the process was open and transparent.  Congressman Schiff is holding them in secret so he can leak only what he wants to leak to control the narrative.

Five, in prior attempts to impeach a president, both parties were allowed to participate.  Again, this time, Congressman Schiff is keeping the Republicans at arms-length.  What is he afraid of?

Six, apparently, only the Democrats don’t believe the transcript on which the whistleblower made his complaint.  They believe it was edited and some mysterious sections were either added or deleted.  So far, they have no evidence of such malfeasance, or at least it hasn’t been leaked.  It is being used as the basis of a political witch hunt.

This whole process smells, just as the Russia investigation did.  For two years we were bombarded by leaks from Congress assuring the American people that President Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians.  It did not.  When the indictments come out, the American people will find out high level members of the FBI, the CIA and other agencies attempted to overturn an election.

When “all” the evidence comes out during this impeachment attempt, more than likely it will show that nothing major happened.  Does Speaker Pelosi or Congressman Schiff care?  No, it is an attempt to discredit a president.  In the end, the American people this all about raw naked power.  The DNC knows it can’t win at the ballot box, so it is trying other means.  Our Founding Fathers anticipated moves such as this and are rolling over in their graves.