by Rev. Bill McGinnis, Director - LoveAllPeople.org
According to the published "House Rules And Manual," as I read it, any Member of the House, after being recognized by the Chair to speak, could propose the following "motion to impeach," as shown below:
"I move to impeach the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of Defense, For their many and persistent high crimes and misdemeanors against the Country; And in particular, for spitting in the face of Congress, By conspiring to commit the crime of Torture, In direct violation of our specific Law, and Against our clear and oft-restated will forbidding Torture."
Under the "House Rules And Manual," this motion to impeach would be "highly privileged," and would take immediate priority over any regular business already before the House. It would be immediately debated on the floor, without first having to go into Committee. If defeated, it could be moved again and again and again, in contrast to regular non-privileged motions. It would not be killed by an initial rejection.
According to this official website, this document "contains the fundamental source material for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives," and includes The Constitution, excerpts from Thomas Jeffersons's "Manual Of Parliamentary Procedure," and "Rules Of The House." Within this document, there is a section called "impeachment," on pages 313-330. The words in this section are a functioning part of the parliamentary rules used by the House today. For your convenience, I have copied this section into a file located at http://www.loveallpeople.org/impeachment.txt ,
This section contains the following words, which show that any one Member of the House can move to impeach, directly from the floor, without having first to go through Committee:
". . . there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate; by charges preferred by a memorial, which is usually referred to a committee for examination; by a resolution dropped in the hopper by a Member and referred to a committee; by a message from the President; by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State or territory, or from a grand jury ; or from facts developed and reported by an investigating committee of the House." (footnotes not shown here)
And this same section says that, "A direct proposition to impeach is a question of high privilege in the House and at once supersedes business otherwise in order under the rules governing the order of business. It may not even be superseded by an election case, which is also a matter of high privilege. It does not lose its privilege from the fact that a similar proposition has been made at a previous time during the same session of Congress, previous action of the House not affecting it." (footnotes not shown here)
And so we see that any Member can move directly to impeach, and that such a motion takes precedence over almost everything else, and that it does not have to go into Committee prior to being debated on the floor, and if it is defeated, it can be made again and again.
NOTE: A huge and wonderful online source of Government Documents is located at the Government Printing Office: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/ I usually criticize the Bush Administration for almost everything they do, because I think they are fundamentally wrong on almost all the important issues. BUT - they have done a really great job in making so much Government information available online, free of charge, to all people. This is really good, in my opinion.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER TO IMPEACH AND REMOVE FROM OFFICE
The House of Representatives has the Constitutional power to impeach any Government civilian official, that is, to present charges against him to the Senate, which must then conduct a trial and remove him from office if convicted. In Article I, Section 2, the Constitution says, "The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment." And in Article I, Section 3 it says, "The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments." And in Article II, Section 4 it says, "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.
Rev. Bill McGinnis is an Internet Christian minister, writer and publisher. He is Director of LoveAllPeople.org, a small private think tank in Alexandria, Virginia, and all of its related websites, including (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Noone would love to see an impeachment proceeding begun against the three you mention more than would I, but we live in a reality.
You seem aware of the methodolgy for impeachment proceedings yet ignore the most basic need, namely a majority of the House must support it to send it forward and a majority of the Senate must be willing to prosecute it successfully.
As the current make up of both Houses leans GOP, and as that party is nothing more or less than a roboticised rubber stamp for the Executive, this talk of impeachment is just premature, at best.
Talk to me after the Democrats have won the House later this year, if indeed they have.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 10:46:52 AM
I wish that many of the people who call themselves Christians would open their eyes and read this. Too many people have been fooled by the Bush/Cheny/Rumsfeld/ propaganda and actually believe these people are Christians. Anybody can call himself a Christian; it is a person's actions that tell the tale. The tales told by this administration have been the kind of twisted horror story that most Christians would actually denounce as depraved if someone attempted to put it onto a screen or in a book. But it's all too real. They have no conscience, no honor, and no respect for human dignity. I was taught in Church and by my Bible that no Christian would EVER behave toward ANY human being the way they have. Christians are not supposed to have that kind of evil and brutatlity in their hearts. I was also taught throughout all my years in school that the United States of American would NEVER, EVER under any circumstances torture ANYBODY for ANY reason. Our nation is supposed to be above that kind behavior. We are supposed to be an example to the rest of the world of justice, fairness and the rule of law. How can we be that when our leaders behave as those three dangerous men have??? It is way past time for them to be impeached and removed from office for high crimes and misdemeanors too almost too numerous to name.
by
Sharon COOPER (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments) on Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 8:01:41 PM
I thought you were going to tell me where the impeachment key was on my computer, so I could get instant satisfaction. But to no avail...
What I want to know is the ability to impeach senators and house members who support Bush's lying Texass. Certainly voting them out is not enough after their support of these crimes. Especially if they can steal presidential elections why stop there, when the House and Senate can do the same?
It is not about the torture crimes, because going after them for that is like thinking the War was justified in the first place. It is about lying to go to War, and the resulting lie implementing the torture at AbuGhraib and Gitmo.
In the end I think they will end up finding Bush Cheney and Rumsfeld in some hole just like they found Saddam as they keep denying their corruption of democracy.
by
Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 930 comments) on Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 7:06:37 AM
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