To impeach, or not to impeach? That is the question
“I DID NOTHING WRONG. If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court. Not only are there no ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ there are no Crimes by me at all.”
President Donald Trump during a three-day, 72-tweet tirade, April 22-24, 2019
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There is, they say, power in restraint.
If that’s the case, Donald Trump may be powerless.
He had every opportunity to gloat for weeks after the Mueller report indicated that he shouldn’t be led out of the White House in handcuffs.
Instead, he’s hunkered down at the White House and at Mar-a-Lago – fuming to himself while he curses at the wind.
That’s typical Trump.
He could have easily moved beyond Mueller, despite there being serious allegations of presidential misconduct contained within his report and could have segued to policy.
He hasn’t.
It’s a classic case of somebody who’s so uncomfortable with victory – they go out of their way to spoil it.
In the meantime, some Democrats are seizing the moment to discuss the “I” (Impeachment) word.
That’s not a good idea.
In the 230 years since George Washington was elected, no president has been removed from office through impeachment.
In fact, only two presidents, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, have even been impeached.
(Richard Nixon may have been impeached and removed from office, but he made a hasty retreat from the White Office before that could happen)
Johnson was impeached for doing something that presidents do frequently nowadays. He fired a cabinet member (Secretary of War Edwin W. Stanton), after he’d been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Remember Rex Tillerson?
Besides, there simply aren’t enough votes in the U.S. Senate to convict Trump, even if he is impeached.
As the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche theorized, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”
A failed impeachment battle might strengthen Trump’s hold on the presidency.
That’s exactly what happened to Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.
Clinton survived impeachment in 1998 and one of the leaders of the charge to impeach him, Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, resigned shortly after the 1999 elections.
Gingrich had counted on Clinton’s impeachment to weaken him.
Instead, Clinton’s popularity grew, and Democrats picked up seats in the U.S. House in 1999.
Another Republican casualty of that Clinton impeachment effort was Bob Livingstone of Louisiana.
Don’t remember him?
Well, you might have to do the Google ’til your fingers bleed to uncover information on a guy who was set to replace Gingrich as the Speaker of the House, who resigned after it was discovered he’d had an extramarital affair.
The entire, ugly Clinton drama was built around him having an affair with an intern and then lying about it.
It was hard for Republicans to justify trying to remove Clinton from office, in part, because he didn’t have “family values,” when the next leader of the Republicans in Congress, got caught fooling around.
Meanwhile, the once impeached president is now considered to be a senior statesman.
So, Democrats should think twice before they move forward with an effort to remove Trump from office – at least for now.
I’d propose another solution.
Let’s all let him tweet himself into a straight-jacket.
He’s bound to do it at this rate.
He’s so angry, even in the face of outright victory, that he’s sure to be found hunched-over in a White House closet somewhere – tweeting his disgust for puppies.
Last week, there was some sort of dust-up between members of the Mexican military and U.S. soldiers on the southern border.
That’s all it took for the already irate president to lock and load his Twitter machine and aim it southward.
“Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border. Better not happen again! We are now sending ARMED SOLDIERS to the Border,” he wrote.
Heaven help us.
Don’t impeach him.
Put him in timeout.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.