The Chosen One

23

From The Page, Thursday March 23, 00.03:

Impeachment!

Republicans to table articles of impeachment through House Judiciary Committee in the am accusing President Baker of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ Opening step in a process aimed at making Baker the first president of the 21st century to be removed from office. Massive and developing story…

Twenty-two minutes later, from Politico.com’s Playbook column:

I’m hearing that Senator Rick Franklin placed a call to the White House in the last hour or so, notifying the President personally of his intention to proceed with impeachment. Call was a courtesy born ‘out of respect for the office of President.’ My source tells me that Stephen Baker ‘pleaded with Franklin’ not to do it, arguing in an emotional phone call that it was against all the rules of ‘natural justice’ to move against him so early in his presidency. It’s certainly a record, that’s for sure. Both Andrew Johnson in the 19th century and Bill Clinton in the 20th had their feet under the table for a good few years before they faced the mechanism that remains the Constitution’s nuclear weapon: impeachment. Baker has been there just 62 days.

It’s too late at night for me to file more than a few speculative thoughts about this, so here goes with two. First, this has only come about because of the death of Vic Forbes. Sure, that name won’t appear on the charge sheet when it comes before the House Judiciary Committee in the morning. Franklin and his pals in the House will make the Iranian Connection the heart of the legal case against the President. They will say that the selling of influence to an enemy power constitutes the relevant violation of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, which states: ‘The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High crimes and misdemeanors.’ But that’s the legal case. Make no mistake, the politics has the name Forbes all over it.

His death changed the political calculus in Washington. The rumors, the suspicion at the undeniably convenient timing of Forbes’s passing, all that has created bad atmospherics for Stephen Baker, a climate of suspicion where senior Republicans think they can accuse him of anything.

And, if Franklin is serious, he must reckon he can peel off enough conservative Democrats to make this thing pass. Let’s face it, there’s no shortage of Baker-skeptics among the Democrats who never liked the President – and all his idealistic talk of America showing an outstretched hand rather than a clenched fist to the world – anyway. If I were in the White House tonight, I’d be keeping a close eye on Dr Anthony Adams over at Defense.

Second, this will all move very fast. The Democratic majority is so slender, Republicans need only a couple of conservative Democrats to waver and the Judiciary Committee could agree to submit articles of impeachment for a vote of the entire House as soon as the start of next week. The clock is ticking on the Baker presidency. If there is even a shred of credible evidence that Forbes was indeed the victim of foul play, rather than a suicide, then the Baker presidency’s future will surely be measured in days…