A question about impeachment.

I have a question for those who know a little more about politics then I do.

Is it possible to impeach members of Congress and the House of Representatives? Because, I have have had this thought for a long time now, why are we not looking into getting many of them impeached? Understand, when they took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, then turn around and then blatantly not follow it, why do we not get them out via impeachment? I want your thoughts on this, please.

reply to post by FiatLux


No, only the President and Supreme Court Justices can be impeached. In the Congress though, members can be expelled. An expulsion proceeding is started from within the particular house of Congress, sorta like the movement for impeachment.

[edit on 2/23/2010 by octotom]

Congress votes to impeach based on certain criteria. Now, to impeach someone from congress whom is doing what most others are doing is unlikely because you would have to impeach a whole freaking bunch of them for doing the same thing...and the simple logistics of that seems unlikely.

Ultimately, it comes down to this...the district the congressman represents has the duty to take care of their own.

The central question regarding the Constitutional dispute about the impeachment of members of the legislature is whether members of Congress are "officers" of the United States. The Constitution grants the House the power to impeach "The President, the Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States." [3] Many believe firmly that members of Congress are not officers of the United States.[5] Others, however, believe that members are civil officers and are subject to impeachment

[edit on 23-2-2010 by SaturnFX]

The House of Representatives votes on impeachment by simple majority, after hearing evidence, not unlike a grand jury. Then the Senate must convict by two-thirds margin, similar to a trial jury.

The problem is, what constitutes an impeachable offense shifts with the political wind. When Clinton was impeached, the voting was on strict party lines. The Senate could not get a two-thirds vote to convict, so he stayed in office. This makes impeachment impossible without the political majority on both sides of the aisle in favor. With a highly polarized two party system, and no agreement on who is impeachable and for what, it's fairly useless.

[edit on 23-2-2010 by John_Brown]

reply to post by John_Brown


Which is a good thing, else everytime a president was nominated, the other side would kneejerk impeach and toss out the president

So, the impeachable offense will be clearly illegal and unacceptable actions. Getting a BJ was not a impeachable offense, and lying to congress about said BJ was arguable, but the question itself was out of line to begin with...thats why it was ineffective there and rightfully so.


How I miss the 90s. oh well.

Thank all of you for your input on this. I wasn`t sure about it myself. But it still remains a fact that only a very few of these people even attempt to follow what the Constitution says. I believe that they all need to be called back to each state they are from and have their feet put to the fire for all of this garbage that they get away with. I often wonder if people are waiting for a miracle to happen, and things just go away, all the while, these corrupt jerks just keep on taking away our rights and cutting up the Constitution.