A President Deserving Impeachment

Before the current impeachment howling of frothing nitwits (=cough= Sarah Palin =cough=), and before the prurient Republican prosecutors of Bill Clinton's penis in the 1990's, there was a time when an American President richly deserved impeachment.  That was 40 years ago today.

On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee recommended the impeachment and removal from office of Republican Richard M. Nixon.  The Committee passed three articles of impeachment based on Nixon's high crimes and misdemeanors committed as a result of the Watergate break-in and cover-up.  On August 8, 1974, rather than face a trial in the Senate, Nixon resigned the office of President.

For those of us who lived through that period, the current "impeach the tyrant!" manifestation of Obama Derangement Syndrome is particularly maddening on several counts:  first and foremost, sorry but there's no "there" there;  and second, in recent decades it's only been deployed flippantly by desperate Republicans whenever Democrats are winning both policy debates and national elections, as a means of de-legitimatizing Democrats and to get their knuckle-dragging Republican base excited enough to drive their Medicare-subsidized mobility scooters to the polls.

The high crimes and misdemeanors of Richard Nixon struck at the heart of American democracy, as does the idle threat of impeachment by his smarmy Republican descendants.