The word impeachment has several connotations. In the simplest connotation, it suggests dishonesty, untrustworthiness or criminal activity. In the classic sense, impeachment focuses upon any civil officer and the crime or crimes he or she is suspected of having committed.

The United States Constitution makes provisions for the impeachment of all federal officials and sets for the crimes for which they may be impeached or indicted. Though the law is there, it has been used only a handful of times.

“At both the federal and state levels, impeachment is rare: From the passage of the Constitution to the mid-1990s, only 50 impeachment proceedings were initiated, and only a third of these went as far as a trial in the Senate. The reluctance of lawmakers to use this power is a measure of its gravity; it is generally only invoked by evidence of criminality or substantial abuse of power.”
SOURCE:: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Impeachment

If, as noted in the preceding citation, “The reluctance of lawmakers to use this power is a measure of its gravity,” I ask you, why should they serve in a position that requires them to perform the pleasant and the unpleasant?

Is not the United States House of Representatives an instrumentality of the people? Should it not, therefore be used to serve the people? If, in fact, the good old boy syndrome is to be the prevailing attitude, should we not reinstitute in every state the so-called “Runaway Jury” system which was remarkably successful in bringing indictments against criminals of all persuasions? The Runaway Jury was in fact a standing Grand Jury with the power to bring indictments without the necessity of any intervening judicial impediment.

I suggest that impeachment and the specter of impeachment would be a deterrent to misdeeds by federal civil servants. I am not convinced that considerably more than 50 elected or appointed rascals were not given a pass on their unlawful activity by the negligence of our elected officials.

There seems to me a prevailing attitude that if we stall long enough, this too will pass. That appears to be the attitude relative to Obama. His distortions of fact, outright lies and inattention to presidential responsibilities are numerous, the stuff of ridicule by foreign leaders and our own media outlets. The cartoonists are having a field day portraying Obama as he is perceived, a buffoon and his wife as totally tasteless.

The lights are being dimmed on that shining city on the hill. We cannot afford to wait until 2012 to vote this disaster out of office. Our delinquent, Go-with-the-flow congress must take immediate and decisive action. Draw up Articles of Impeachment and chalk this nightmare up to experience.

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