Impeachment

[TysonLPrice]

Alan Dershowitz, one of the attorneys representing the president, made what some consider an outrageous statement concerning the President's actions. If you are not aware of what I'm referring to here is a link; but that is not the nature of my post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ge%2Fstory-ans

Here is what Mike Braun said about Dershowitz's position:

“I couldn’t comment on that because I’m not a constitutional lawyer,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.)

It is the same template republicans have been using for years denying climate change:

“I couldn’t comment on that because I’m not a scientist,” said (republican_name)

[FunkyDexter]

I think I'm going to quote your article just for the mind boggling conceit of the argument being forwarded:-

“But a complex middle case is: ‘I want to be elected. I think I’m a great president. I think I’m the greatest president there ever was. And if I’m not elected, the national interest will suffer greatly,’ ” Dershowitz said. “That cannot be an impeachable offense.”

I… just... WHAT?!

Credit where it's due, though, it sounds like even the other Republicans raised their eyebrows at that.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's all they did, though, and all they will do.

[2kaud]

Well who would have thought that - A Republican president gets acquitted by a Republican Senate! and to have the State of The Union address during the trial....

With today's tribal politics, I guess that only if the opposite party to the President has a majority in the House and a 2/3 majority in the Senate will a President be found guilty of Articles of Impeachment.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Bill Clinton gave a state of the union speech during his impeachment trial, so that's unusual. Also, this was the first presidential impeachment trial in US history where the entire opposition party voted as a block. While the N is only 3, so that's not saying much, acquittals have been bipartisan in the past. Still, nobody was surprised.

[dilettante]

And as usual, the loser is the taxpayer. This has been an expensive political temper tantrum with a high potential for backfiring.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Technically, one could say that the loser is ALWAYS the taxpayer. Once an organization gets larger than one person, waste starts to increase. This isn't necessarily due to any particular cause, though there could be some of that. The direction the organization goes is the average of the directions that individuals want to take it, and that will necessarily include some inefficiency. In a business, if the inefficiency gets too high, the business goes under. If the inefficiency is manageable, then the business makes a profit. Government doesn't make a profit, and works in areas where profit is hard to measure. Therefore, it lacks the ultimate filter that is built into capitalist business (state owned enterprises are notably different). The voters have some element of control over the direction, but have a strong tendency to use that control in an inefficient fashion. The result is that government is guaranteed to waste some percentage of money by pursuing goals that are either not worthwhile, or would be worthwhile if pursued in some other fashion. That's just life. You can eliminate small amounts of waste, but never all that much.

[FunkyDexter]

I'm in my late 40s and my waste has been growing for years

[wes4dbt]

Sadly just about everything the House of Representatives has been doing is turning into a waste of time. The Mitch McConnell lead Senate is sitting on @ 300 bills that the House has sent to the Senate. It seems like the welfare of the American people has no place in politics anymore.

[dilettante]

I'm in my late 40s and my waste has been growing for years

Was that a typo? I thought only Al Bundy found a source of pride in that.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Technically, that would be kind of a double pun, as either spelling has a humorous meaning.