Impeachment and Tom DeLay

“This criminalization of politics,” says Tom DeLay, “is very dangerous, very dangerous to our system. It’s not enough to ruin your reputation. They have to put you in jail, bankrupt you, destroy your family.”

“This criminalization of politics” did not disturb DeLay in 1998 when he engineered the impeachment of Bill Clinton because the president lied about…his sex life.

DeLay felt far differently about it on Monday, Jan. 10, when Travis County Court Judge Pat Priest sentenced DeLay in Austin to three years in prison for money laundering and conspiracy resulting from his role in a ruse to channel corporate donations to Texas state races in 2002, according to The New York Times.

Perhaps the law employed to convict DeLay is a stretch as a criminal offense. For the record, Texas prohibits corporations from contributing directly to political campaigns.

The evidence presented at the trial showed that DeLay and two associates routed $190,000 in corporate donations in 2002 to several Republican candidates for the state legislature, using the Republican National Committee as a conduit, the Times reports.

The state law in question makes one wonder if such contributions should be banned, but that only underscores the point: DeLay is enduring the very treatment he foisted on Clinton. How does it feel?

DeLay and his Republican friends pushed for Clinton’s impeachment on grounds that he denied in court any sexual activity with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, when it turned out that he had. There have been suggestions that Clinton’s denial did not constitute perjury.
That’s not the point, either. Clinton did nothing all that egregious in violation of his responsibilities as president. However anyone regards Clinton’s behavior, what’s the difference in terms of his job?

It was petty stuff, which is what DeLay claims about his conviction and sentencing. In fact, he charges that the Democratic district attorney was using the law to avenge his empowerment of Republicans.

DeLay was not using the power of impeachment to avenge Clinton’s empowerment of Democrats?

DeLay’s hypocrisy is surfacing now, but what should offend all of us was his abuse of the Constitution’s impeachment clause.

Republicans used the powers of impeachment because of Clinton’s policies aimed at improving the lives of all Americans, especially the underprivileged. Of course, Republicans no doubt regarded his policies as a form of treason.

Impeachment is briefly covered in Article II, Section 4: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery and other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Before anyone says that adultery is no crime, do not forget that many states long ago criminalized various moral and religious digressions. No District Attorney would prosecute pre-marital or extra-marital sex, but it is possible that they are on the books as criminal offenses because a given state legislature never bothered to repeal them.

Many women, incidentally, regard adultery as a severe crime, in their minds. They might even demand punishment that us guys would consider very cruel and very unusual.

That, again, underscores the point. DeLay and his friends pursued Clinton over irrelevant issues. Clinton’s lies were rooted in a situation that was not related to his presidential obligations.

The framers of the Constitution had higher purposes for the impeachment clause than settling political scores. DeLay and the other Republicans failed miserably in the appropriate use of the Constitution.

Now DeLay, who is appealing his sentence, feels victimized by an unfair legal situation. Bad law or not, he was still convicted of violating it.

As Judge Priest told him, “Before there were Republicans and Democrats, there was America, and what America is about is the rule of law.”

Just what does Tom DeLay think America is about?