The impeachment process

[CornField]

1. The House Judiciary Committee deliberates over whether to initiate an impeachment inquiry.
   
   
2. The Judiciary Committee adopts a resolution seeking authority from the entire House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry. Before voting, the House debates and considers the resolution. Approval requires a majority vote.
   
   
3. The Judiciary Committee conducts an impeachment inquiry, possibly through public hearings. At the conclusion of the inquiry, articles of impeachment are prepared. They must be approved by a majority of the Committee.
   
   
4. The House of Representatives considers and debates the articles of impeachment. A majority vote of the entire House is required to pass each article. Once an article is approved, the President is, technically speaking, "impeached" -- that is subject to trial in the Senate.
   
   
5. The Senate holds trial on the articles of impeachment approved by the House. The Senate sits as a jury while the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial.
   
   
6. At the conclusion of the trial, the Senate votes on whether to remove the President from office. A two-thirds vote by the Members present in the Senate is required for removal.
   
   
7. If the President is removed, the Vice-President assumes the Presidency under the chain of succession established by Amendment XXV.
   

Note: An impeachment and removal does not activate the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment. The ex-officer may face criminal indictments and trials for the same conduct that led to their impeachment and removal from office.

Members of the 109th Congress House Judiciary Committee:

Republican
Hon. Hyde (R) Illinois, 6th

Hon. Coble (R) North Carolina, 6th

Hon. Smith (R) Texas, 21st

Hon. Gallegly (R) California, 24th

Hon. Goodlatte (R) Virginia, 6th

Hon. Chabot (R) Ohio, 1st

Hon. Lungren (R) California, 3rd

Hon. Jenkins (R) Tennessee, 1st

Hon. Cannon (R) Utah, 3rd

Hon. Bachus (R) Alabama, 6th

Hon. Inglis (R) South Carolina, 4th

Hon. Hostettler (R) Indiana, 8th

Hon. Green (R) Wisconsin, 8th

Hon. Keller (R) Florida, 8th

Hon. Issa (R) California, 49th

Hon. Flake (R) Arizona, 6th

Hon. Pence (R) Indiana, 6th

Hon. Forbes (R) Virginia, 4th

Hon. King (R) Iowa, 5th

Hon. Feeney (R) Florida, 24th

Hon. Franks (R) Arizona, 2nd

Hon. Gohmert (R) Texas, 1st

Democratic
Hon. Berman (D) California, 28th

Hon. Boucher (D) Virginia, 9th

Hon. Nadler (D) New York, 8th

Hon. Scott (D) Virginia, 3rd

Hon. Watt (D) North Carolina, 12th

Hon. Lofgren (D) California, 16th

Hon. Jackson Lee (D) Texas, 18th

Hon. Waters (D) California, 35th

Hon. Meehan (D) Massachusetts, 5th

Hon. Delahunt (D) Massachusetts, 10th

Hon. Wexler (D) Florida, 19th

Hon. Weiner (D) New York, 9th

Hon. Schiff (D) California, 29th

Hon. Sánchez (D) California, 39th

Hon. Van Hollen (D) Maryland, 8th

Hon. Wasserman Schultz (D) Florida, 20th

[tx_dem41]

1. Step 1....roadblock.

End of discussion until January 2007.

[savemefromdumbya]

2. Which Republicans will impeach their President?

[CornField]

3. Not sure... maybe the ones who want to hold the country together?

I've sent messages to the whole committee explaining that I, as a citizen of the USA, expect impeachment proceedings to begin immediately and why. I don't know if it will make a difference, but I couldn't sit here on DU bitching without taking any real action.

[savemefromdumbya]

8. I wrote to my Congressman a few months ago

he said there weren't any plans to impeach the POTUS but if he heard anyhting he'd let me know....well I'm still waiting....

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. Can a citizen charge the President with a crime in oreder to......

start the process?

[CornField]

5. The last time that happened

And, as far as I can tell, it wasn't done to start an impeachment -- the lady who filed the criminal charges ended up being ruled a suicide. (Margie Schoedinger)

To answer your question: No. We can only encourage the House Judiciary Committee to begin the process.

[...of J.Temperance]

6. We cannot do this because we don't control the Congress

Any discussion therefore would be immediately shut off by the Repukes.

It's simple logic, unless we can win back Congress next year, then no matter how much we agree that Junior needs to be Impeached, unfortunately it's not going to happen.

As it stands now we don't have the numbers to force Impeachment resolutions. I'm sorry, but we must be realistic about this.

[CornField]

7. IMHO, being realistic does not include being silent

I hope everyone on DU (and everywhere else) who believes this President should be impeached writes a letter to the House Judiciary Committee stating such. Matter-of-fact, I hope all their offices are flooded with mail from people just like me who are expecting and demanding impeachment proceedings to begin.