Reply #10: The least impeach supporters could do is not mangle easily proved facts [View All]

[rinsd]

"Impeachment will make the Democrats lose in 2008."

"The historical record suggests that this is all wrong."

The historical record does no such thing one way or the other.

"When the Democrats held back from impeachment during Iran Contra, they lost the next elections."

They lost a Presidential election. They gained 2 seats in the House and a seat in the Senate. So this is just incorrect.

"And many of the people they failed to go after came back in the form of the Bush Jr. Administration to make life hell for the Democrats and the rest of us."

True though I am unsure how impeachment hearings against Reagan would have done anything to stop that.

"When the Democrats led the effort to investigate and impeach Nixon, they won big in the next election, even though Ford was running as an incumbent. "

Another dubious fact. The Dems stood pat in the Senate, Carter won by a slim margin (2%) and they gained one seat in the House.

"When the Republicans tried to impeach Truman, they got what they wanted out of the Supreme Court and then won the next elections."

Again Eisenhower won. Eisenhower, hero of WW2. To say the shift in 50 and 52 came from impeachment is dubious at best. The impeachment actions came in 52. The Dems lost 22 seats. The Dems also lost 22 seats in 50 when no impeachment articles were mentioned.

"Articles of Impeachment have been filed against nine presidents, usually by Republicans, and usually with electoral success following."

Cite them. You've already made simple mistakes. I want to see where clear gains were made by an opposition party after filing articles of impeachment with the articles at least having a hand in said power shift.

Here's another example. 1868 after Johnson was actually impeached by Republicans, Democrats saw a 22 seats gain in the House(the Senate was not yet popularly elected)


"When the Republicans impeached Clinton, impeachment was actually unpopular with the public. Even so, the Republicans lost far fewer seats than is the norm for a majority party at that point in its tenure. Two years later, they lost seats in the Senate, which had acquitted, but maintained their strength in the House, with representatives who had led the impeachment charge winning big. Voters appreciate efforts to push for a cause."

This is nonsense "Because of gains made in the House of Representatives(by Democrats), it was the first time since 1934 that the out of Presidency party failed to gain congressional seats in a mid-term election, and the first time since 1822 that the party not in control of the White House had failed to gain seats in the mid-term election of a President's second term."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections%2C_1998

How could you get so many easily verified facts wrong? Or what I really suspect is how could you so misrepresent the historical record?