A mistake in the Constitution?

Jim C. writes:

Subject: A GLARING MISTAKE IN THE CONSTITUTION

Incompetence should have been listed BEFORE high crimes and misdemeanors as the principal reason for presidential impeachment.

Is posing like an emperor conduct grossly
incompatible with the U.S. presidency?
How about waging war without congressional approval?

LA replies:

Interesting idea. But it seems to me it wouldn’t be viable. Incompetence is too vague and subjective a standard. The president’s opponents would say he was incompetent, his supporters would say he wasn’t.

However, I’ve always liked the standard for impeachment given by government prosecutor John Doar to the House Judiciary Committee in 1974: “conduct grossly incompatible with the nature and function of the office.”

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

A reader has pointed out that Obama in the above photo doesn’t look like an emperor, since no self-respecting emperor would take such a comically egotistical pose, but that Obama instead looks like Mussolini:

But didn’t Mussolini see himself as the founder of a new Roman empire?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 19, 2011 09:04 AM | Send