Quick rundown of how impeachment works [View All]

Let's throw out a couple of fairly implausible scenarios:

Scenario 1: In next year's elections, we get enough non-DINO Democrats in the House to send an impeachment to the Senate and a combination of non-DINO Senate Dems and Republican Senators Who Have Had Enough Of His Shit to get rid of Numb-Nuts.

or

Scenario 2: The Republicans decide that if they don't get rid of Little Nero, their presence in Congress will be reduced to about 30 impervious Representatives and the Republican senators who aren't up for re-election in the 2006 cycle. They ask Shrub to step down, he refuses, and they're left with Plan B: he's their cocksucker, they have to deal with him.

How, then, would an impeachment work? And remember, there is NOTHING in the Constitution that says you can't impeach an entire administration in one pass. Practical considerations say doing it would be a near-impossibility, but it's legal.

Step 1 is for the person you want to impeach to do something that rises to the level of impeachable conduct. Bush commits, on average, five impeachable offenses between the time he puts on his bunny slippers and the time he gets up from the breakfast table then thirty more before lunch, so Step 1 is no problem.

Step 2 is for an investigation to take place. When the Republicans impeached Clinton they spent $70 million sending FBI agents through Arkansas mobile home parks looking for women whom may have had connubial relations with the Commander in Chief before he was elected, had Secret Service agents rifle the First Lady's underwear, and otherwise investigated Clinton's every waking and resting moment since his voice deepened at the age of 13. (For that money we learned that he sucks at land trading and that he invented the blowjob.) Investigating Bush isn't going to be nearly that hard--get a transcript of the pre-war State of the Union Address and highlight all the counts of perjury before Congress. How much will this investigation cost? How much does a case of highlighters cost?

Step 3 is for one Representative to drop a bill of impeachment into the hopper. The one against Clinton was cosponsored by most of the Republicans, but it really doesn't have to be.

Step 4 is the impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives. A simple majority refers it to the Senate for...

Step 5, the Senate impeachment trial. If a two-thirds majority to convict is reached (67 Senators), the impeached party is out on his ass and eligible to be taken to criminal proceedings. The Chief Justice serves as president of the Senate, but no other Supreme Court justices participate.

There's no Supreme Court participation save the Chief Justice, and he doesn't get a vote. Nor, apparently, is he allowed to set aside the decision of the Senate.

Hence, Bush can pack that Supreme Court with far-right jurists and it won't save him.