re. impeachment, hamilton writes in federalist #65 (if memory serves, this is most specific remark about what impeachment entails in the federalist papers): '...offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL [[caps in the original]], as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to society itself. The prosecution of them, for this reason, will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused. In many cases it will connect itself with the pre-existing factions, and will enlist all their animosities, partialities, influence, and interest on one side or on the other; and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.'
house of representatives has only adopted 17 (i think) impeachment resolutions in u.s. history, 13 of them were for lower federal court justices - 1 was for senator, 2 were for presidents, 1 was for supreme court justice...
senate has only removed 6 persons - all lower federal judges - from office (alcee hastings, florida's first african-american federal judge, a carter appointee, was impeached and removed 4 years after he has been acquitted of bribery charges, he's now a member of the house of representatives)....
interestingly, first person to be impeached was a member of congress, tennessee senator william blount in 1797 for his participation in plan to help british take florida from spain, senate dismissed charges against him on grounds that members of congress are not 'civil officers' [[article 4 language]], but it went ahead and expelled him...
nixon resigned rather than face impeachment proceedings, and house of representatives dropped the matter, it did *not* have to do so, resignation neither prevents the house from acting, nor the senate from trying a person whom the house has impeached (similar thing had happened once before with a federal judge who resigned and house terminated proceedings against him)...
impeachment is part of what poli sci guys benjamin ginsberg and martin shefter call 'politics by other means' - revelation/investigation/prosecution - RIP (which may signify a bit too much deference by g & s to the 'constitutional republic', but hey).... michael hoover
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