Re: Selection Process

["Beast (Donald E. Eastlake, 3rd)" <[e-mail]>]

From:  [e-mail] (Michael Davis)
In-Reply-To:  "Beast (Donald E. Eastlake, 3rd)"'s message of Sun, 29 Nov 92 15:
42:09 -0500 <[e-mail]>
>
>On Sun, 29 Nov 92 15:42:09 -0500, "Beast (Donald E. Eastlake, 3rd)" <dee@skidr
ow.pa.dec.com> said:
>>>> ....           Another good exmple is the provisions for impeachment
>>>> of the President in the US Constitution.  No President has ever been
>>>> impeached but this rarely used mechanism has been called "the fulcrum
>>>> of congressional power" and has real effects in limiting how far the
>>>> President can go.
>Actually, Andrew Johnson was impeached, but was not convicted in the
>Senate.

You are technically correct and the adoption by the House of articles
of impeachment against Andrew Johson can be viewed as an example of
potential misuse of recall provisions.  But my point was that the mere
existence of the impeachment provisions in the Constitution makes it
clear that ultimately a large enough majority in Congress is in charge
whether or not these provisions are ever used.  Thus rarely used
provisions can be useful in a ways that do not depend on them ever being
used.

Donald