RIGHT ON!!! Barbara C. Jordan and The Reasons for Impeachment

[kpete]

Barbara C. Jordan and The Reasons for Impeachment
by gchaucer2
Wed Jul 25, 2007

Today is the thirty-third anniversary of Barbara Charline Jordan's (D-TX) stirring speech on the House floor demanding that her fellow Representatives get a spine and uphold their oath to the Constitution.

On July 25, 1974, this African American woman stood up to the naysayers and clearly laid out the grounds for impeachment of Richard M. Nixon.


............

It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Constitution, for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the President should be removed from office.

The Constitution doesn't say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of the body, the legislature, against and upon the encroachment of the Executive. The division between the two branches of the legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other the right to judge, the framers of this Constitution were very astute. They did not make the accusers and the judges the same person.

............

James Madison, from the Virginia ratification convention. "If the President be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there is grounds to believe that he will shelter him, he may be impeached."

James Madison, again at the constitutional convention: "A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution."

..........................

Today, I am an inquisitor; an hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total; and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/25/152850/503

[Missy Vixen]

1. One of my life heroes

Proud to K&R.

Julie

[indepat]

10. On my very short list of true American heroes and patriots of the last quarter-century:

she had been on my short list at the only time I ever saw her and no one now in the Federal government, elected or appointed, has earned a spot on that short list.

[hisownpetard]

2. She was magnificent. I remember, and can still hear her voice

resonating with indignation. There are very few
nowadays who can even come close.

[Skidmore]

5. So correct. Few can come close in eloquence or

in honor and integrity. I have that speech on my cheap version of the iPod and listen to it frequently. I always wanted her to be our first woman President, then she became ill.

[TahitiNut]

7. Absolutely! She was without peer.

<-- my hero!

[Swamp Rat]

3. k&r

[Karenina]

4. k&r

:hug:

[XOKCowboy]

6. Unfortunately YouTube only has one 2+ minute video of her..

but here it is. It's the beginning of her Keynote Address at the '76 Democratic Convention. Enjoy. She sure was a great orator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhAAha-UQdk

I don't remember which speech it was but Molly Ivins talked about it in her books. It seems that the Texas Lege was in special session when Barbara made one of those speeches and all of the legislators crowded around the TVs to watch her speech and cheered when finished. Even the crusty Good Ol' Boy Texas rednecks respected her that much.

BTW K&R

[Senator]

8. K&R

[LWolf]

9. If Barbara Jordan gave this speech today, about the Bush administration,

she would not be appreciated by much of DU. :(

[Lint Head]

11. Should have been President Jordan.