JFK would mock this impeachment

In his book Profiles in Courage, President Kennedy examined 8 members of Congress who at various times stood up to the mob and did the right thing.

Chapter 5 profiled Republican Senator Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, one of the Republican senators who voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial. 

The first impeachment of a president was a joke. Johnson was a terrible president at the end of his term. The law the House used was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional 3 years later. Presidents can, indeed, fire any or all political appointees.

The Senate's official page includes a tribute to the book and this chapter in particular.

Its summary reads, "Edmund Ross, a Kansas Republican, cast the deciding vote that ended the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. The proceedings began because doctrinaire Radical Republicans, then in control of the Senate, passed a Tenure of Office Act to prevent a president from firing cabinet members without Senate consent. This was done to try to stop Johnson from firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. 

"Johnson believed Stanton was a tool of the Radicals who wanted to establish a military dictatorship in the South. Johnson felt the wiser course would be to reconstruct the Confederate states back into the Union as quickly as possible without unnecessary military intervention, as Lincoln had intended. When Johnson fired Stanton, the impeachment began. 

"The House voted for impeachment and the trial then moved to the Senate. As the trial went on it became clear that the Republicans had no intention of giving Johnson a fair trial; rather, their emphasis was on convincing enough Senators to find Johnson guilty. Ross was overheard saying that while he had no sympathy for Johnson, he would do his best to see that he was fairly tried. Because Ross had previously been such a partisan Republican, he became the principal target of abuse from the press, the public, and his fellow Republican legislators. 

"Nonetheless, Ross voted against convicting Johnson, reasoning that if a president could be forced out of office by insufficient evidence that was based on partisan disagreement, the presidency would then be under the control of whatever congressional faction held sway. Ross's action unleashed relentless criticism. Neither he nor any other Republican who voted to acquit Andrew Johnson was reelected to the Senate, and Ross and his family suffered ostracism and poverty upon their return to Kansas in 1871. Eventually, Ross was vindicated by the Supreme Court, which declared the Tenure of Office Act to be unconstitutional, and praised by the press and the public for having saved the country from dictatorship."

Ah.

See there?

When Republicans impeach a Democrat president, well, that is to set up a dictatorship.

Democrats have twice impeached President Trump, including this unconstitutional post-presidency impeachment.

Where is the Democrat Edmund Ross?

Courage, instead, is defined as going along to get along.

NBC lavished accolades upon a Republican who voted to impeach.

The Comcast subsidiary said, "GOP Rep. Anthony Gonzalez risked his career to impeach Trump. He's not sorry.

"Under fire back home, the Ohio lawmaker may have lost his chance at a Senate seat and could face a House primary challenge next year."

Wow, he's a regular Joan of Arc.

So a hundred of the 100,000 or so people at President Trump's rally got into the Capitol? Apparently that is a capital offense because Capitol Police shot and killed one of the intruders. Instead of demanding justice, the press reverses the polarity and calls the mob violent, not the officers.

Bruce Antonio Laue at Taki's Magazine compared this unconstitutional impeachment to the trial of British King Charles I by Parliament in 1649. 

Laue wrote, "Charles Stuart was an elegant man in both dress and speech. He sensed that this was not a judicial exercise but rather a theatrical piece designed for public consumption; though he could not prevent it, he would play his part by his script. When called before the Court, the King entered under armed escort. Dressed all in black to mirror the style of his enemies, the Puritans, the only color evident was the embroidered star of the Order of the Garter on his cape and the blue ribbon and medal of the Order about his neck. He regarded his Judges with disdain as the charges against him were read. When he was finally asked how he wished to answer the charges, the King knew his moment had come. 'I would know by what power I am called hither, by what lawful authority?' he calmly replied."

There was no law.

There was no authority.

The king said, "For if power without law may make laws, may alter fundamental laws of the kingdom I do not know what subject he is in England that can be sure of his life or anything he calls his own."

372 years later, the statement stands.

The Parliament found him guilty and condemned him to death. Four days later, he walked to the scaffold under heavy guard. At 2 p.m. on January 30, 1649, he was executed, beheaded with one clean stroke, a rarity.

One does not have to support Divine Right, which King Charles claimed, to note the injustice. But as the king said on the scaffold, "I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be."

We cannot change that, but we can learn from that experience.

Laue wrote of the upcoming impeachment fiasco, "There is a greater, unspoken purpose for this trial.

"It is to send a message, the same message that Parliament sent out with the condemnation and execution of Charles, and that message is that there is a new power in the land, namely: 'If we can do this to the King, we can do this to you.' It sent then, and sends now, new instructions of obedience to the general populace: 'We are in control, you are not; abide in your status.' "

Cromwell signed the death warrant for King Charles. Cromwell died in 1658. 

On the 12th anniversary of the execution of King Charles, they exhumed Cromwell's body, tried him, and beheaded him.

That should give pause to Donald Trump's prosecutors, but they are too numbed by their vanity to recognize the trap they set for themselves.

If JFK were alive today, he would be 103. 

He also would be telling Democrats that their first act after winning the presidency should not be to engage in victor's justice, because the political pendulum swings back just like the blade that separated the king's head from the king's body on January 30, 1649.