Reply #63: Impeachment cannot be instigated by the Speaker

[beaconess]

It's not forbidden by law, of course, but the Speaker should never and has never been generated from the Speaker. Being in the direct line of succession, the Speaker would appear brazen and corrupt if she pushed impeachment from her position.

Instead, impeachment must be done as a bottom up matter in the House. For example, as noted in last night's program, the push for Clinton's impeachment did not originate with Speaker Gingrich. Instead, it was the rank and file Republicans, led by Bob Barr, who generated the Republican groundswell. Then Majority Whip Delay took it up and brought it to Gingrich who, only after the support was already there, moved forward. Of course, we don't know what mischief Gingrich was doing behind the scenes to gin up support, but publicly, he never called for impeachment until the support was in place.

A similar pattern occurred in the Nixon impeachment. House Speaker Carl Albert never publicly called for or pressed for impeachment and did not make any public moves on the issue until there was already significant support.

So all of this beating up of Pelosi is misplaced, in my view. It would be inappropriate for the Speaker to initiate impeachment talk or action at this point. The House and Senate are doing the right thing - they are carefully building a case against Bush. While I still believe that impeachment is unwise, my mind can be changed if enough solid evidence emerges that I think would lead to conviction in the Senate. That can only be done through the investigations that are now taking place outside of the impeachment context. If these investigations were being conducted as part of an impeachment hearing, the Republicans would dig in their heels at every turn and we'd get nowhere. But doing it this way ensures that the information is being gathered and Republicans are slowly coming around to the point that there is a chance of gaining support from a small, but significant minority of them.

If you want impeachment, don't go after Pelosi - go after YOUR member of Congress and demand that they start calling for it.