Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Constitutional Ignorance in Congress

Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte or Virginia is the Chairman of the House Judiciary committee. Over the weekend, he stated that there would be no impeachment for the President because "no criminal act" had been broken.

Folks, here's what I want you to see if you're interested...here we have the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee....of all the members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee OUGHT TO KNOW WHAT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS!

Goodlatte, makes the claim that it takes a "criminal act" to warrant impeachment. He is either ignorant of our Constitution or he intentionally misstates the Constitutional threshold because he thinks your stupid. I have said for a long, long time...that the vast majority of those serving in the Congress are absolutely clueless to our United States Constitution. This man is an embarrassment.

Article II, Section 4 clearly states the following:
"The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

The Constitutional threshold for impeachment is actually pretty low....it has NOTHING to do with "criminal acts" although criminal acts would certainly meet the threshold if they occurred. Impeachment can even occur for "misdemeanors".  We need look no further than the founders to see what they meant...and for what purpose is the process of impeachment.

Alexander Hamilton wrote the following in Federalist 65: "those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust."
In other words, the Impeachment is the vehicle for removing those that "abuse or violate public trust".  Impeachment has ABSOLUTLY NOTHING to do with "criminal acts".  Representative Goodlatte is nothing more than a feckless, ignorant politician....or he is a liar. Either one of those options are not good.

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