What is an "impeachable offense?"

[Archae]

To these guys, anything they want it to be.

Barber & Staver: Impeach Obama Because 'High Crimes And Misdemeanors' Means Whatever We Want It To Mean

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 2/12/2014 10:34 am

As Brian noted yesterday, Liberty Counsel has now launched a campaign urging the House of Representatives to file articles of impeachment against President Obama for having supposedly committed multiple high crimes and misdemeanors. What exactly those "high crimes and misdemeanors" are is kind of hard to say but it doesn't really matter apparently because, as Mat Staver and Matt Barber explained on a recent "Faith and Freedom" radio broadcast, "high crimes and misdemeanors" means basically whatever Congress says it means at any given time:

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/barber-staver-impeach-obama-because-high-crimes-and-misdemeanors-means-whatever-we-want-it-m#sthash.Wv4I3uQg.dpuf

[malthaussen]

1. Not just to "these" guys.

There exists no definition of "impeachable offense." The only question is whether it can be gotten away with.

-- Mal

[bemildred]

2. Anything at all that enough house members will vote for. nt

[Initech]

3. A real impeachable offense is going to war over false pretenses.

A real impeachable offense is destroying the economy and giving tax breaks to the people who have more money than God.

A real impeachable offense is spending over a year and a half of your 8 year term clearing brush on your ranch and pretending to be a cowboy while ignoring what's really happening.

A real impeachable offense is letting one lunatic fringe network completely throw out national election results.

But no it's ok when their side does it.

[Scuba]

4. Presidentin' while Black.

[Bjorn Against]

5. While there is no clear legal standard...

That does not mean the words "high crimes and misdemeanors" are meaningless. While the words are broadly written, it is clear they suggest a crime needs to be committed. With the word misdemeanor however it also suggests it can be a pretty minor offense, if you looked hard enough I am sure you could probably find some minor violations of the law no matter who is in office. From a political perspective however impeaching over a minor infringement would not go over well with the public, if they tried to impeach over anything less than a truly high crime it would backfire on them.

[unblock]

6. "high crimes and misdemeanors" -- generally, abuse of office, or unfit to serve:

The convention adopted “high crimes and misdemeanors” with little discussion. Most of the framers knew the phrase well. Since 1386, the English parliament had used “high crimes and misdemeanors” as one of the grounds to impeach officials of the crown. Officials accused of “high crimes and misdemeanors” were accused of offenses as varied as misappropriating government funds, appointing unfit subordinates, not prosecuting cases, not spending money allocated by Parliament, promoting themselves ahead of more deserving candidates, threatening a grand jury, disobeying an order from Parliament, arresting a man to keep him from running for Parliament, losing a ship by neglecting to moor it, helping “suppress petitions to the King to call a Parliament,” granting warrants without cause, and bribery. Some of these charges were crimes. Others were not. The one common denominator in all these accusations was that the official had somehow abused the power of his office and was unfit to serve.

http://www.crf-usa.org/impeachment/high-crimes-and-misdemeanors.html



note that it does NOT specifically refer to "crimes" in the ordinary sense (murder, rape, robbery, assault, wire fraud, etc.) "high crimes" essentially means crimes of public office, i.e., the sort of rotten thing that could only be committed by someone in a position of public trust. that said, one could certainly argue that a murderer would be unfit to serve and could therefore be impeached and removed, the subtle point is that the murder itself isn't a "high crime and misdemeanor" (well, even that could depend on who was killed and why) but the fact that he *is* a murderer would render him unfit for office, and *that* would be a misdemeanor.

[11 Bravo]

7. For Democrats: Consensual sex and wearing white after Labor Day. For Republicans:

There's no such thing.

[TreasonousBastard]

8. As others have noted-- they're right...

Those guys who wrote the Constitution were pretty smart. They deliberately left the definitions open partly because they didn't want anything they didn't think of to get a pass, but mainly because they knew perfectly well that it was a political process, not a legal one.

Impeachment is, essentially, the way you fire the President.

[JoePhilly]

9. Benghazi, Bengahzai, Benghazi!!!

[TheMathieu]

10. The leader of the free world needs some flexibility.

So it sets a dangerous precedent when impeachment is thrown around so easily.

[Zambero]

11. Something like this

Criteria / time sequence as follows:

1. Democratic candidate for President
2. Elected to 1st term
3. Demonized by right-wing noise machine 24/7
4. Re-elected a 2nd term after GOP puts up another mediocre candidate
5. Shock and awe from the right since Karl Rove & their own pollsters ensured the "base" that it was a lock for them
6. Talking heads whip the base into an insane frenzy over bogus issues (imperial presidency, Benghazi, etc.)
7. Further over-reach from the more extreme whacko members of the GOP House caucus, egged on by the likes of Rand Paul, Ted Cruz as nauseum. Koch brothers jpoin the fray, throwing in million$ for negative dark money ads.
8. GOP leadership capitulates lest they be primaried or removed from their positions by right wing nuts
9. Long list of "high crimes and misdemeanors" is materialized, as identified by GOP's head-of-party Rush Limbaugh
10. Articles of impeachment drawn up. If rammed through The House, dies in the Senate. Either way, there is massive voter backlash against the GOP's sorry spectacle.

[wandy]

12. Well lets see here. We have a Democratic president............

A president who may, no did by virtue of the ACA threaten the profits of the GOP stakeholders.
So what would be an an "impeachable offense"?
Think hard fellow Teapublicans. We know how to deal with this.
Ha! I remember now. The Clinton game plan.
Just keep an eye on the White house front lawn. If that dog leaves a calling card, we go for it!
That will never work you say.
The Liberal Senate wont go along. They will stop it.
Who cares! It will rally the rank and file.

Yes my fellow members of the Democratic persuasion there is a way to stop it.
VOTE!

[tritsofme]

13. That is actually the correct answer. Impeachment is a purely political act

High crimes and misdemeanors are whatever a majority of the House decides at any given time, the Constitution has no further guidance.

[LWolf]

14. It differs between parties.

For Republicans, something as simple as thinking one's sex life is nobody else's business is impeachable.

For Democrats, there's not much that is impeachable. The only crime that's not okay is spying on the Democratic Party. The rest, including war crimes, gets a pass.

[okaawhatever]

15. To Republicans Obama's greatest crime is failure to be a one-term President. nt

[HappyMe]

16. Being a black, Democrat while being president.