The Blaze wasted a bunch of ones and zeros letting us know that No. 42 is still considered to be in the top three presidents in recent history along with Kennedy and Reagan…pretty good company I’d say:
New survey shows Americans’ favorite presidents — Bill Clinton won’t be pleased
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/05/27/new-survey-shows-americans-favorite-presidents-and-bill-clinton-wont-be-happy
Interestingly…the only Democratic*** president to ever be impeached, and who Republicans pilloried for decades, still has a commanding 15 point lead over Republican Dwight Eisenhower (though I have no issues with Eisenhower and believe by today’s standards he would be considered a liberal Democrat and not a Republican, which is true of all the Republicans on the list including Reagan – who would be straddling the contemporary divide between Democrats and Republicans; as for Bush Sr.? We all know he secretly voted for Hillary Clinton.) Seeing how Glenn Beck and his compatriots at the Blaze chose to put their efforts into such an inconsequential article during this heightened time of partisanship, and with an administration in crisis, a look at No. 42 and the circumstances of his impeachment must be on the forefront of the minds of today’s Republican leadership as they shoulder the burden of being solely and unequivocally responsible for the stewardship of the nation and protectors of the Constitution and its tradition of the rule of law.
As the most contemporaneous example of the degree of misconduct that the Republican Party endorsed and pursued impeachment proceedings it is absolutely imperative that we look to that benchmark as guideposts for what the American public and the Republican Party should guide their actions by in the crisis we are faced with today. In these partisan times it would not be fair to Republicans to apply the standards set by the Democrats when they initiated impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.
It would therefore be impossible, without abandoning every shred of self respect and decency and laying bare one’s puerile mud-raking partisanship and vomitous hypocrisy and soullessness, to argue that the benchmark set by Republicans, and which is fresh in our collective prefrontal cortex, should not be applied to the current Republican President. Also, there is the argument that it is just fair to apply the standard last applied to the current situation. Furthermore, since the Republican’s succeeded in impeaching the President, it must be a prime example of the degree of misconduct that justifies the extraordinary decision to pursue articles of impeachment. So what were the Articles of Impeachment against President Clinton?
For the sake of brevity, and since most of us are familiar with the facts, I’m only going to discuss the facts that formed the basis of the impeachment charges. President Clinton was charged with 4 counts and convicted of two. The two charges resulting in his impeachment were: (1) perjury, and (2) obstruction of justice. The specific facts that those charges applied to (after 6 years of investigation by a special prosecutor) were he lied under oath during a deposition about having sexual relations with a White House intern in a questionable sexual harassment lawsuit for alleged conduct that happened before he was elected president. The obstruction of justice charge derives from the lying under oath, not from any attempt to interfere with the Special Prosecutor or other conduct, just the fact that the lying under oath would constitute obstruction.
Without any embellishment, here is what is currently on the record: (1) President Trump fired the FBI Director and publicly admitted that the decision to fire the Director was because of the investigation into known ties between the President’s campaign; (2) after months of self-righteous indignation and denials that there were any meetings between the Trump campaign and Russian officials we know of numerous meetings; (3) Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI, which tells us that the Special Counsel had evidence and could have charged much more serious crimes, he is also cooperating witht he Special Counsel; (4) another advisor who orchestrated meetings with Russians also pled guilty to criminal charges and is cooperating with the Special Counsel; (5) and the Chairman of the Trump Campaign has been indicted and is facing numerous criminal charges.
From a legal perspective, and we are governed by the rule of law, the fact that Trump could fire the Director for any reason does not give him immunity if any particular firing constitutes obstruction of justice. Whether a firing is an obstruction of justice depends on whether the reason for the firing was to obstruct justice. In this case the ongoing investigation into Russia’s ties to the Trump campaign. If the reason Trump fired the Director was because Trump thought Comey bought his suits were off the rack at Sears or JCPenny that would be fine, no issue. But Trump said on national television, contradicting everything his staff had said previously, that he fired Comey because of the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
Trump walked out onto Fifth Avenue and shot the rule of law in the head when he fired Comey. We are now watching the aftermath. He is now raping our heritage and what makes us unique among much of the internationional community; i.e. our tradition of abiding by the rule of law. And he is not alone. As he defiles our most steemed insitutions and the free press, his supporters’ and the Republican leadership are applauding. Their reaction says everything anyone needs to know about their character.
Today there are two types of people in America: Americans and Republicans. Without question, today's Republicans are traitors to our heritage, the Constitution, and to every principle that defines this country and makes it different from Putin’s Russia.
The travesty, and I mean heart wrenching travesty, is that his supporters believe in their heart of hearts that they have been suffering for so long and under such oppression and neglect that they would be better off if America was more like Russia. They are stupendously ignorant. They have no frame of reference because they have led insular spoiled lives. Unlike the rest of use who have taken responsibility for our lives and tried to adjust to changes in the economy by moving to where we might get work, or going back to college, these people sat on their lawn-chairs, tied the appropriate ribbon around their tree, and waved their flags and just sat on their asses waiting for the government to do something to change their situation. God forbid they take action. Move to a different part of the state or country where there are jobs, go back to school, and everything they chastised those other folks who were in a similar predicament but who were maybe a little darker complexion and didn’t quite schmooze enough at the Elks Lodge. They are just so angry, entitled, and emotionally handicapped that they don’t care if we have a Bill of Rghts. As long as it is their team that is body slamming reporters, jailing the brown folk, taking their health insurance (how ridiculous is that, they are so scrambled and handicapped that when they are kicked off from the health insurance they got from Obama, they won’t care because it’s Trump took it from them). How do you save people from themselves?
For our system of government to work, we need an informed citizenry. At times like these we should be brushing up on our history so that when we are confronted with things like current events we can contextualize them and not overreact. Having done that myself, what we face today is an absolute travesty and anyone (even the guy that lives under the bridge and who talks to box trolls) who discusses impeachment as a reasonable course of action is actually well within the guardrails of having a sane and reasoned reaction to this catastrophe of a Presidency. If you believe that President Clinton should have been and was justifiably impeached but that Donald Trump shouldn’t be impeached for what is already in the public record you have absolutely zero credibility and are a partisan hack…double check that contract you signed when you gave up your soul, there may be a way out of it still.
***Before the Republican’s get their panties in a bunch, Andrew Jackson was not a Democrat but aligned himself with the Democratic-Republican Party. His winning the Presidency led to the breakup of the D-R Party and the founding of the Democratic Party. Which is all irrelevant because if you are still reading this thinking Jackson was impeached you have just been “Olie’d” (in honor of John Oliver’s intentionally misidentifying countries on maps as gentle reminders of our ignorance). President Andrew Johnson, President Lincoln’s VP and successor, is the only other President to ever be impeached and he was also a Democrat. Johnson’s grievous misconduct involved violating the Tenure of Office Act which was a partisan law passed to prevent Johnson from firing the then Secretary of War. It is precedent, however, for the argument that criminal conduct is not necessary for impeachment. But again, I’m all for employing the trigger happy Republican’s standards for impeachment to the present case as well. But lets not miss the point that if all of this is news to you, and you didn’t pick up on the Jackson/Johnson issue, your knowledge of history sucks as bad as mine and 90% of readers. Lets brush up on our history.