"Any president who says, I don't care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed — if a president really believes that, then there are — what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that."
The "way" that Senator Chuck Hagel was searching for was impeachment. You remember impeachment, don't you? That's the one where a member of the executive branch has committed "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". It is not removal from office. It is similar to being indicted in criminal law. Nixon resigned before he could be impeached. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 for violating the Tenure of Office Act, and the Senate acquitted him with a single vote. Bill Clinton weathered two articles of impeachment in 1998, one for obstruction of justice and another for perjury. Two additional articles of impeachment failed: one for an additional count of perjury, and another for abuse of power. President Clinton was not removed from office, but Hillary did vote to send him to the couch for the remainder of his term in office.
Here's something to consider: shortly after Clinton's December 1998 impeachment, his popularity attained its highest level ever with a seventy-three percent approval rating. Pinhead's job approval hovers in the low thirties. Would it be too ridiculous to suggest that impeachment at this point would only improve things, martyr-wise? Are you listening, Karl Rove?
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