As clouds of impeachment loom, and House Democrats do their best collective imitation of Hamlet, Speaker Pelosi and others bemoan that people don’t know what impeachment means. Experts and tyros alike argue the merits of impeachment versus censure versus unlabeled investigations. They argue the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” And they argue the relative merits of choosing any particular path, crediting Pelosi for her political savvy or frustrated at her seeming inanition.
Well, one approach that lends itself to less abstruse discussion is to identify the procedural steps that comprise impeachment. Happily, former Labor Secretary and current UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich recently posted on Twitter a brief video that skirts all the fraught and heady issues and sticks to bare bones process, after a brief historical review.
He posted it on April 24, but I just ran across it. I’ve searched back to that date here and haven’t seen it diaried, so I thought I would share it. It seems like it might help to have clarity in at least this aspect of the debate. If someone’s already diaried this here, let me know, and I’ll take it down.
As the good professor says at the end, “This knowledge may come in handy.”