Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones:
The tomb of Tristram and Isoude
(1862)

"Perhaps the founders intended this."

The impeachment of a President takes separation of powers to dizzying levels. The indictment, brought by the House of Representatives, requires only a simple majority to be advanced to the Senate, where the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides in a trial. A supermajority of sixty-seven Senators must vote to convict there, and thereby remove the accused from office. The Senate may also optionally choose to bar the convict from ever again holding Federal office. Think of this process as a trial complicated by partisan politics played at their most frenetic by the terrified. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached and then acquitted in the Senate. Donald Trump was impeached twice, then acquitted in the Senate twice. Few equate this impeachment process with justice. Andrew Johnson was impeached for cause, only for a cowardly Senate to refuse to impose well-deserved justice. Bill Clinton was brought up on what history would recognize as trivial, if not trumped-up charges, only to be gratefully acquitted by a thankfully sane Senate. Trump committed treason twice and was acquitted both times by an equally guilty and complicit Senate.

It takes much more than committing a crime to be considered Impeachable.

Tags: #EndDays, #PureSchmaltz