Democracy Has Prevailed.

March 12, 2007

A Republican utters "Impeachment"

It's Hagel.

In an interview appearing in April editions of Esquire magazine -- set to hit stands next week -- Hagel suggests that President Bush could be subject to calls for impeachment as the Iraq war drags on.

"The president says, 'I don't care.' He's not accountable anymore," Hagel said in the article. "Before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends on how this goes."

Hagel has long been an outspoken critic of the administration's foreign policy and its handling of Iraq, but for a conservative Republican from a firmly rooted red state to mention the "I" word in the same breath with a sitting party president is still shocking.

I still don't know if it will happen, but it's still shocking to see a member of the GOP even say that there might be calls for impeachment.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I DON'T SUNDERSTAND WHY THEY HAVEN'T BEEN IMPEACHED ALREADY!!!!

Anonymous said...

If you don't understand why they haven't been impeached, it's because you can't do arithmetic.

Two-thirds of 100 Senators = 67 Senators. Without Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, there are 49 Democratic Senators. 67 - 49 = 18.

Which 18 Republican Senators were you hoping would vote to convict and impeachment?

EdHeath said...

Doesn't the House have to start the process? Boy, Clinton should have been a civics lesson, but I was so disturbed by the whole thing I didn't pay the attention I should have. Well, unless there is a hard copy of an email somewhere between Osama Bin Laden and Bush, impeachment is not going to happen, so I don't think I will bother to google it ('cause I hate research and facts).

Anonymous said...

It's fairly simple. The House first passes Articles of Impeachment by a simple majority. This is the equivalent of an indictment, but is actually what we refer to as impeachement. This has happened twice: to Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

Then the Senate as a whole hears the case, presented by "prosecutors" from the House. The Chief Justice of the United State presides. Two-thirds of the Senate, sitting as a "jury," must vote to convict.

As you probably know, no such conviction has ever happened in the US, although Andrew Johnson came within one vote of being removed from office. The Republicans were unable to muster even a majority against Bill Clinton. Nixon resigned shortly before he would have been impeached and eventually convicted.

Anonymous said...

Actually, another Republican has mentioned impeachment of President Bush. It was in regards to the controversial conviction of 2 Border Patrol agents.

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) stated that he there would be "impeachment talk" if either of the 2 Border Patrol agents in prison (Ramos and Compean)lost their lives in prison.