Wanton Removal

by digby

Via Avedon Carol, I was reminded of this speech by James Madison on the subject of impeachment. (I say “reminded” not because I am a constitutional scholar but because impeachment was discussed at great length recently, as I’m sure you’ll recall, and the founders “intent” was debated ad nauseum.)

…let us consider the restraints he will feel after he [the president]is placed in that elevated station. It is to be remarked that the power in this case will not consist so much in continuing a bad man in office, as in the danger of displacing a good one. Perhaps the great danger, as has been observed, of abuse in the executive power, lies in the improper continuance of bad men in office. But the power we contend for will not enable him to do this; for if an unworthy man be continued in office by an unworthy president, the house of representatives can at any time impeach him, and the senate can remove him, whether the president chuses or not. The danger then consists merely in this: the president can displace from office a man whose merits require that he should be continued in it. What will be the motives which the president can feel for such abuse of his power, and the restraints that operate to prevent it? In the first place, he will be im-peachable by this house, before the senate, for such an act of mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious officers would subject him to impeachment and removal from his own high trust.

Yes, impeachment was considered the remedy for such high crimes and misdemeanors as the promotion and protection of incompetent government officers and the “wanton removal” of good ones. The founders didn’t anticipate that serving and pleasuring the president would be casually accepted as politics as usual.

Instead, we now have a political party and pitiful press corps who think that all this manipulation of the justice system for partisan gain is just adorable, while this was worthy of impeachment:

The four House prosecutors who spoke for five hours on Friday painstakingly reviewed the chronology of alleged misconduct against the president — charges with which the public has long been familiar.

They detailed Monica Lewinsky’s affidavit in the Paula Jones case, her suprisingly successful job search after an interview she said went poorly, Betty Currie’s retrieval of the president’s gifts and excerpts of testimony and more testimony.

The prosecutors also produced more charts highlighting alleged contradictions in sworn statements from the president and the other participants in the drama. Lewinsky said the president touched her breasts many times, Clinton said he didn’t and many more examples.

I think it’s quite clear that when it comes to impeachment the Republicans and the media believe in a living, breathing, moaning and grunting constitution.

The Republicans are very good at innoculation and I think they were very lucky or very prescient in impeaching a president over trivial matters that had nothing to do with his performance in office. They turned impeachment into a crude partisan tool and effectively removed it as the only instrument that can be used to stop a crazed and incompetent president from doing whatever he chooses once he’s elected. These people really know how to plan ahead.

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