August 08, 2023 09:05 AM UTC

Who's "Cheapening Impeachment?"

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• by: Colorado Pols

The New York Times’ Carl Hulse reports today on the increasing use of the once-rare tools of censure and impeachment as conventional political weapons in the ongoing partisan warfare between Democrats and Republicans, alternating in and out of power at the whim of a deeply divided electorate:

No president had been impeached for 130 years before Bill Clinton faced charges by the Republican-controlled House in 1998. Donald J. Trump was then impeached twice — doubling the number of presidential impeachments. Now, many Republicans are working to impeach President Biden.

Proposals to censure lawmakers and impeach members of the Biden administration are piling up quickly in the House in an illustration of how once-solemn acts are becoming almost routine as the two parties seize on these procedures as part of their political combat. And the trend is only likely to intensify given the enmity between Republicans and Democrats over a new federal indictment brought against Mr. Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and the G.O.P.’s desire to even the score.

It’s a narrative written to appeal to adherents of what’s known as the “both sides” fallacy, reflexively seeking false balance between two presumed morally equivalent sides of a conflict. Under this thinking, the two impeachments of Donald Trump, which did not produce a conviction, means that Republicans should have as many whacks at the impeachment pinata just because that’s “just fair.”

Setting aside the fact that all of these GOP impeachment attempts are DOA the moment they arrive in the Democratic-controlled Senate, let’s talk about the qualitative differences between what’s happening today and the two impeachment trials of Donald Trump. The second trial over Trump’s incitement of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol took place right after Trump left office, and although 57 Senators voted to convict some including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell argued that criminal investigations were the better avenue. That objection has been overcome by the criminal indictment of Trump for trying to steal the 2020 presidential election, of which January 6th was just one plot point.

The first Trump impeachment was the result of a long investigation into Trump’s bullying of Ukraine to get dirt of Joe Biden. This is the case that provokes the most political indignation from Republicans, but at least there was an investigation. And again, with the U.S. now a key ally of Ukraine since the Russian invasion, Republican pique over this impeachment hasn’t aged well.

And in both cases, compare these copiously-documented impeachment proceedings to the way Colorado’s leading impeachment inciter Rep. Lauren Boebert approached the subject. Due diligence this is not:

Representative Lauren Boebert, a far-right firebrand from Colorado, essentially sought to have Mr. Biden impeached in June without so much as an investigation. [Pols emphasis] Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, another far-right Republican, had earlier filed her own articles of impeachment against the president.

After sidestepping Ms. Boebert, [Pols emphasis] House Republicans are now conducting what they characterize as an “inquiry” into a potential impeachment, one that is likely to gain steam in the G.O.P. backlash to the new indictment. And it is not just Mr. Biden in their sights but other administration officials including the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, even though there is no chance any would be convicted in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Despite the fact that so many intelligent Republicans (and even some less so like Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado) have denounced the House GOP’s tit-for-tat compulsion to impeach President Biden, that appears to be the only strategy being pursued to reduce the collateral damage from Trump’s escalating legal trouble. But it’s Rep. Boebert’s attempt to jam impeachment articles through without even bothering to investigate that discredits the whole effort, another reason why Republican leadership “sidestepped” Rep. Boebert’s allegedly cribbed impeachment articles.

The moral of the story? Impeachments are not points on a scoreboard. They are not all created equal.