William Steinmeier
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
If "pro" is the opposite of "con," what is the opposite of "progress?" Yes, Congress at the moment is indeed the antithesis of progress in our country. Where is that "comprehensive immigration reform" that they talk about year in and year out? Where is the desperately needed, massive infrastructure rebuild that has been discussed for years? Has Congress passed legislation to reduce pharmaceutical or other health care costs? Have they approved the USMCA that the president negotiated last year to improve on NAFTA, which would create 176,000 new jobs for Americans? Why are appropriations bills routinely held hostage for political purposes, leading us again and again to the brink of a government shutdown?
Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives has focused its entire attention on trying to impeach the president of the United States. She admitted recently that the Dems have been working on impeachment for 21/2 years now, long before the most recent impeachment effort began last fall.
The Founders intended impeachment to be an extraordinary remedy for the most extreme of presidential abuses, namely, "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors." The words "and other" are not emphasized enough in the current debate. They mean that an impeachable high crime or misdemeanor must be of the same or comparable severity as treason or bribery. Not a single witness before the House testified that President Trump has committed an impeachable offense. Only policy differences were testified to.
Professor Alan Dershowitz of the Harvard Law School is a liberal Democrat, a former member of the board of the ACLU and a renowned constitutional scholar. He says that the impeachment of President Trump is unconstitutional. If you haven't seen him recently it is because CNN, MSNBC and the mainstream media no longer invite him on because he is not presently singing their party line. Google him! And watch the Dec. 4, 2019, House Judiciary Committee testimony of another constitutional scholar, Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School, who also did not vote for President Trump but is protective of our constitutional order.
Congressional Democrats are using impeachment in exactly the manner that the Founding Fathers warned about, for purely partisan political purposes to overturn the results of a valid presidential election. It is time well past time for Congress to move beyond its obsession with removing our duly-elected president and get about the country's business.