Someone at the Associated Press (specifically Stephen Groves) must have either run short of other things to complain about regarding congressional Republicans or simply become bored. The latest round of accusations involves how the House GOP in particular is “abusing” its power to discipline people in the executive branch and even some members of the legislature. Groves specifically calls out the successful effort to censure Adam Schiff and ongoing discussions of potential impeachment proceedings of various bad actors ranging from Merrick Garland to Joe Biden himself. All of this “chatter” (as Groves puts it) and “weaponizing of procedures” is supposedly turning an extraordinary “option of last resort” into something that is “humdrum.” The House Republicans really need to think of some new evil plans just to give the AP something else to write about.
Driven by the demands of hard-right members, Republicans in the House are threatening impeachment against Biden and his top Cabinet officials, creating a backbeat of chatter about “high crimes and misdemeanors” that is driving legislative action, spurring committee investigations, raking in fundraising money and complicating the plans of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his leadership team.
Long viewed as an option of last resort, to be triggered only for the most severe wrongdoing, the constitutionally authorized power of impeachment is rapidly moving from the extraordinary to the humdrum, driven in large part by Republicans and their grievances about how Democrats twice impeached President Donald Trump.
This is a curious argument to make when you consider the source. Both Groves and most of the Associated Press have previously been big fans of impeachment at both the federal and state levels. He’s previously written what seemed like an endorsement of the idea of impeaching South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who by what I’m sure is a total coincidence, happens to be a Republican. A quick search of Associated Press articles from the runup to the 2022 elections will reveal a vast list of times that the impeachment of Donald Trump (twice!) is referenced with nary a complaint about those circus acts.
With the ongoing and obvious bias and hypocrisy of the Associated Press having been noted, I will readily admit that I too have become uncomfortable with the ease with which both parties have taken to seriously discussing impeachment and censures. In the entire history of the country, only one president had been impeached prior to the 1990s (Andrew Johnson). Then Clinton was impeached, followed by the two impeachments of Trump.
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Articles of impeachment were entered in the House against George W. Bush over the invasion of Iraq, though the measure was never acted on. Articles of impeachment against Barack Obama were drafted, though never submitted. They even submitted articles of impeachment against Reagan. Ironically, the last president not to face a serious impeachment push was Jimmy Carter, who was arguably the worst president of the modern era. (Although one of the best ex-presidents we’ve had in living memory.)
All three of these last impeachments were fully partisan in nature and no president has ever been convicted. And given the partisan nature of politics in Washington these days, no president will ever be convicted and removed unless one party manages to gain a substantial supermajority in the Senate at some point. And if that happens and the White House is held by the other party, impeachment and removal are probably a near certainty.
I’ve largely steered away from impeachment talk during the current administration. The primary exception to that tendency is the case against Merrick Garland, whose obvious malfeasance and partisan dereliction of duty have been established well beyond any reasonable doubt in my opinion. Similarly, the censure of Adam Schiff was explained reasonably enough as I see it, but censure without removal remains a somewhat pointless exercise. Schiff and his Democratic supporters see it as a badge of pride, much as Donald Trump treats the various witchhunts against him. The other argument against removal is that the replacements we wind up with (particularly in the case of impeaching Joe Biden) might arguably be even worse.
As has been long established, impeachment is a political act, not one of law enforcement. And impeaching a president when there is no chance of removal by the Senate remains largely a waste of the legislature’s time. It’s not that most of the swamp dwellers in DC haven’t done plenty to merit removal. Many surely have. But that’s not how things work in the swamp. Most of this is for show and the two parties are simply scrambling to move the polls a couple of points in their direction. It’s a sad state of affairs, yet here we are.
