Despite the New York Times’ painful retraction – their story alleging sexual impropriety of then-college student Brett Kavanaugh left out a key exonerating fact – six active Democrat Presidential Candidates STILL want to impeach the Supreme Court Justice. They want to move forward with impeachment, even though those latest, totally unsupported charges made against him have proved false. They were levied by “unnamed sources” who even the New York Times now admits either didn’t witness the alleged “incident,” or, in the case of the supposed victim herself, doesn’t even remember any such incident at all. No victim, no crime.
But apparently, that’s not good enough for Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), avowed Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (S-VT), former Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), former Obama Cabinet Secretary Julian Castro, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) or Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), a former State Attorney General, who really should know the Constitution better. While House and Senate Democrat Party leaders – including Senate Minority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) try to wave off any attempt at yet another unlikely impeachment, radicals in the House, led by “The Squad,” are pushing ahead with attempts at a Kavanaugh impeachment.
While embarrassing to Justice Kavanaugh, this effort is the latest disastrously out-of-step move the Democrat Presidential Candidates are taking to further alienate them – and their supporters – from the majority of Americans. It also lacks any constitutional authority.
Impeachment is intended as a way of removing from office a President, Vice President, confirmed Cabinet official or Federal judge for “ Treason, Bribery or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors (US Constitution, Article II, Section 4),” committed while in office. The reference to “high crimes” refers not to the seriousness of the crime, but only to “high persons” – i.e., to public officials. Specifically, “high crimes” are limited to those who, because of their official status, are able to commit crimes not possible to ordinary persons (from definition found on Constitution.Org).
This archaic English Common Law wording covers allegations of official misconduct, such as perjury of oath, abuse of authority, intimidation or the misuse of assets. Impeachment also covers dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming, refusal to obey a lawful order, chronic intoxication or tax evasion. In no way does impeachment relate to an action that may or may not have taken place forty years or more before the official in question became a Federal official. It was never intended as a remedy for actions taken by college students – or actions taken by anyone before they became Federal officials subject to this constitutional provision.
So even if college student Brett Kavanaugh did something untoward, something now defined as sexual harassment – and there is no evidence of this, as the New York Times acknowledged in withdrawing its allegations – it would not be subject to impeachment as a remedy. In short, no man or woman can be impeached and removed from office for actions taken before he or she entered government service.
However, something as clear as constitutional law has little meaning for the venal candidates eager to do anything to take down President Trump and his millions of supporters, truth be damned.
This, like every other drunken lurch to the extreme Left, along with every public embrace of blatant Socialism, and every boneheaded, politically-motivated decision Democrat Candidates for the 2020 Presidential nomination make, the better it will be for conservative Congressional candidates in 2020. This is particularly important because the most extreme of the Democrat candidates, instead of being marginalized, are forcing the more mainstream Socialist Democrat candidates – like Biden and Warren and Bernie Sanders (and yes, compared to the truly far-Left second-tier candidates, even Bernie appears to be a bit more moderate) – are instead pulling those “relative” centrists farther and farther to the extreme left, farther and farther away from the mainstream of American political thought.
Examples:
Beto O’Rourke, whose campaign has devolved into a one-topic push to confiscate law-abiding Americans’ guns – and not just so-called “assault weapons” – is forcing the entire Democrat field to tilt dangerously toward the howling Left, which wants to brand the NRA as a terrorist organization and all American gun-owners as criminals. Supported by the Liberal elite who will – like former Mayor Bloomberg – continue to have personal armed security guards even as Americans are disarmed, this tendency will directly strike at more than 40 percent of all American voters.
All candidates supporting the Green New Deal want to ban “unnecessary” private automobiles, forcing Americans to use public transit, and they want to do this within a decade. Though not widely discussed – for obvious reasons – this is a core element of the Green New Deal, one that, if it became widely known, would impact every car-owning American.
All candidates supporting universal Medicare for all want to force 160 million Americans to abandon their healthcare plans, including members of America’s most powerful unions, who’ve fought hard for superior benefits plans. They’re also advocating the elimination of several million jobs in or related to health insurance.
The list goes on. The twenty-some Democrat candidates seem to agree on few things … except that Americans should be denied things they now welcome and take for granted. Democrats in contested Congressional or Senatorial districts who are up for election in 2020 are increasingly concerned about this far-Left stumble by their party. They’re certain that their conservative 2020 opponents will campaign around linking them to the increasingly radical, socialistic and – as in the case of Kavanaugh – bizarre positions that are likely to be anathema to 2020 voters.
When this leftward lunge from rationality becomes crystal clear to the American electorate, watch for a polling and likely voters shift away from the radical party and more toward candidates who actually support the Constitution.
Photo: Pref News / Flickr