Can Gonzales be impeached?

[question everything]

Or is this process reserved for the President and judges only?

[wordpix]

1. Article 1, Sec. 2 & 3 and Article !!, Sec. 4 of the Constitution---see latter first

Article I, Section 2

Clause 5: The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Article I, Section 3

Clause 6: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Clause 7: Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party, (defendant), convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Article II, Section 4

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.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h231.html

[BootinUp]

2. No, AG is not an elected position

best they can do is force his firing or removal through political / legal pressure. Of course if was convicted of a crime that is different.

[bunkerbuster1]

3. No. Gonzo can be impeached.

Both righties and lefties have, at various times in history, called for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justices.

I believe that there's no reason whatsoever for Congress NOT to impeach Abu G.

[Gregorian]

7. A guest on Olbermann said he could not be impeached.

Sorry, I don't have a fucking brain anymore. Or perhaps I never did. Not for politics. Even though I love it.

Having said that, I've heard the answer to impeaching an AG is no. But if I struggle to recall, I think the word "confirmed" had something to do with it. But that might have been another discussion altogether. See how lame I am? Sorry. However, I do remember the license plate number from my parent's 1961 Oldsmobile. Go figure.


I'd like to hear more about it.

[bunkerbuster1]

8. the link's in this thread

specifically: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h2039.html

"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."

SCOTUS Justicies and, surely, AGs would qualify as civil officers of the United States.

[Gregorian]

11. I've always been under the impression that any civil servant could be impeached.

It was only the other night on Olberman that I heard otherwise. Even your postman can be impeached, if I'm right.


Actually, after doing a quick Google, I can see no comments that deny impeachability.


It looks like he's impeachable. More replies will convince me further.

Thanks.

[wordpix]

13. I say Gonezo is a civil officer who can be impeached.

He's not military, he's a civilian and he's an officer b/c he's officially in charge of a department. The guy is impeachable, no doubt about it.

[Junkdrawer]

4. Here's a NYT op-ed that says he's impeachable...

He’s Impeachable, You Know
By FRANK BOWMAN

IF Alberto Gonzales will not resign, Congress should impeach him. Article II of the Constitution grants Congress the power to impeach “the president, the vice president and all civil officers of the United States.” The phrase “civil officers” includes the members of the cabinet (one of whom, Secretary of War William Belknap, was impeached in 1876).

Impeachment is in bad odor in these post-Clinton days. It needn’t be. Though provoked by individual misconduct, the power to impeach is at bottom a tool granted Congress to defend the constitutional order. Mr. Gonzales’s behavior in the United States attorney affair is of a piece with his role as facilitator of this administration’s claims of unreviewable executive power.

A cabinet officer, like a judge or a president, may be impeached only for commission of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But as the Nixon and Clinton impeachment debates reminded us, that constitutional phrase embraces not only indictable crimes but “conduct ... grossly incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of our constitutional system of government.”

United States attorneys, though subject to confirmation by the Senate, serve at the pleasure of the president. As a constitutional matter, the president is at perfect liberty to fire all or some of them whenever it suits him. He can fire them for mismanagement, for failing to pursue administration priorities with sufficient vigor, or even because he would prefer to replace an incumbent with a political crony. Indeed, a president could, without exceeding his constitutional authority and (probably) without violating any statute, fire a United States attorney for pursuing officeholders of the president’s party too aggressively or for failing to prosecute officeholders of the other party aggressively enough.

....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/opinion/03bowman.html

[question everything]

6. Interesting. Thank you (nt)

[TahitiNut]

14. Yep. He's impeachable.

Generally, anyone subject to "advise and consent" and POTUS and VPOTUS, afaik.

[lonestarnot]

5. Skinned his knee like a peach?

[TahitiNut]

9. Impeach. Remove. Indict. Convict. Imprison. (Rinse, Repeat.)

Of course, he is. :shrug:

[napi21]

10. No. If you listened to Keith tonight, he had Johanthan Turley on.

Keith asked him that quetion. He said NO, there's really nothing you can do to Gonzo unless he's proven to have committed criminal acts and then of course he could be indighted like any other citizen. He also said the Comey testimony stated absolute impeachable offense against Shrub!

The problem of course is, it's impossible to simutaniously impeach the Prez & the VP at the same time, and the worst thing I can imagin is a Prez Cheney!

[question everything]

21. And this is Bush's best insurance: Prez. Cheney

I remember in 1974 when Agnew resigned, my professor's first reaction was: now we can go after Nixon.

[mmonk]

12. Of course. All the present criminals in high office

can be impeached for their violations of the constitution.

[Lint Head]

15. No but the lying 'no nekc' weasal can be thrown in jail.

[mmonk]

17. Anyone who carries out acts against the constitution most certainly can be impeached.

[H2O Man]

16. Yes. n/t

[cascadiance]

18. Give Bush a timeline! Start getting him trained on the TEETH of timelines!

IF he doesn't fire Abu Gonzo by that date, then congress WILL impeach him then!

[C_U_L8R]

19. The question is..

will he be impeached?

I'll believe it when I see it.

[Warren Stupidity]

20. Prediction: if impeached and removed Gonzo will ignore and continue.

So far the cabal has made it clear that their strategy with respect to the oversight power of Congress is to ignore its existence. So yes Congress can impeach and remove Gonzales (although some opinions bizarrely hold otherwise) but there is no reason to believe that Gonzales would pay the slightest attention to such an event.

They are playing for keeps here, there is too much at stake.

[Warren Stupidity]

22. William Bellknap Sec War 1876: Impeached

He was impeached by a unanimous vote of the House of Representatives shortly after he had resigned for allegedly having received money in return for post tradership appointments.<1> Speaker of the House Michael C. Kerr wrote to the Senate that Belknap resigned "with intent to evade the proceedings of impeachment against him."<2> Belknap was tried by the Senate, which ruled by a vote of 37-29 that it had jurisdiction despite the resignation.<3> The vote on conviction fell short of the two-thirds required, with 35 to 37 votes for each article and 25 votes against each. Two of those voting for conviction, 22 of those voting for acquital, and one who declined to vote said they felt that the Senate did not have jurisdiction due to Belknap's resignation.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_W._Belknap

That would settle the matter. Cabinet officers have in fact been impeached.

[question everything]

26. Thank you. Then let's proceed

I can see hesitation about impeaching Cheney and Bush. But Gonzo is now like that dead rat on the kitchen floor. All one has to do is pick it up and throw to the trash.

One would think that Republicans would be even more eager so that they will have something to tell their constituents before November 2008. And, knowing the kind of constituents they have, who probably still support the war and Bush, they would not try to stand by anyone by the name of Gonzales..

[DemReadingDU]

23. morning kick

[radfringe]

24. yes and it should be soon

http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0213190-00&templatename=/article/artic

Impeachment
Impeachment, a proceeding in which accusations are brought by a legislative branch of a government against civil officials (chiefs of state, cabinet members, and judges).



http://www.cftech.com/BrainBank/SPECIALREPORTS/impeachment.html
I: Introduction
The Constitution deals with the subject of impeachment and conviction at six places. The scope of the power is set out in Article II, Section 4:

"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."


C. American Impeachment Cases
Thirteen officers have been impeached by the House since 1787: one President, one cabinet officer, one United States Senator, and ten Federal judges. In addition there have been numerous resolutions and investigations in the House not resulting in impeachment. However, the action of the House in declining to impeach an officer is not particularly illuminating. The reasons for failing to impeach are generally not stated, and may have rested upon a failure of proof, legal insufficiency of the grounds, political judgment, the press of legislative business, or the closeness of the expiration of the session of Congress. On the other hand, when the House has voted to impeach an officer, a majority of the Members necessarily have concluded that the conduct alleged constituted grounds for impeachment.



oh and before someone says "bush will just pardon him".... :

Article II, Section 2:

"The President shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment

[sheerjoy]

25. It appears

that it cannot even be brought up for them! Grrr. How did we let it get this far?


America's Butt Wipe