I've been covering politics for a couple of decades now, but every once in a while I come across something that leaves me scratching my head. This was one of those days. Browsing through an article published by Forbes last night, I noticed that Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee has introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of Kamala Harris. He's using the typical language of "high crimes and misdemeanors" as required by the Constitution, but what are the specific charges? Ogles claims that she has demonstrated "extraordinary incompetence in the execution of her duties and responsibilities." Fair enough, I suppose, but this is a very constitutionally cloudy question and there are other avenues to address such matters. In any event, this looks more than anything else like an election year stunt and is almost certainly doomed to failure, even if the effort somehow makes it out of the gate and through the initial steps.
A GOP lawmaker on Tuesday introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Kamala Harris over her handling of the southern border, as Republicans lay into the new Democratic presidential candidate in the days after President Joe Biden stepped down from the campaign trail.
Rep.Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced a resolution calling to impeach Harris for high crimes and misdemeanors, arguing that during her term as vice president, Harris “has demonstrated extraordinary incompetence in the execution of her duties and responsibilities.”
Specifically, Ogles claims Harris has exhibited a “stark refusal to uphold the existing immigration laws” and a “palpable indifference to people of the United States suffering as a result of the ongoing southern border crisis.”
Harris has not responded to the resolution, and did not immediately respond to a Forbes inquiry for comment.
As any regular reader already knows, I'm not any sort of a fan of cackling Kamala Harris. She is, if anything, potentially worse than Joe Biden when considering her suitability for higher office or even the office she holds now. If somehow elected to the presidency, she would simply continue Biden's disastrous policies and continue to run the country into the ground for the next four years, potentially throwing a socialist or two onto the Supreme Court in the process. Assuming she winds up being the Democratic nominee, I firmly believe that conservatives need to fight every bit as hard against her candidacy as they were fighting against Joe Biden's because there is far too much on the line and she lacks a few of Biden's weaknesses.
With all of that said, this move by Ogles makes no sense on a number of levels. First of all, while theoretically possible, impeaching members of the House or Senate is exceedingly rare and has been challenged in the courts in terms of standing and for other reasons. In the history of the country, only one Senator has ever been impeached (Tennessee Senator William Blount in 1797 and the circumstances surrounding that were bizarre and controversial.) And even if the House managed to impeach Harris, the Democrats who still control the Senate (at least for now) would never convict her. Of course, the Senate retains the ability to expel her if there was a desire to do so, but there wouldn't be a single vote from Schumer's people to do so.
That brings us to the grounds cited for the impeachment. "Extraordinary incompetence?" You'll get no argument from me on that score, and I say that as someone who is able to recognize and praise competence on the rare occasions that I see it, including members from both sides of the aisle. A perfect example is Senator Bernie Sanders. I agree with him on virtually nothing, but he obviously reflects the values of the voters who continue to elect him in his home state and he performs his job competently in pursuing those goals despite being older than both Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Kamala Harris is a cackling, stuttering mess who rambles on about Venn Diagrams and I would be hard-pressed to name any significant legislative achievements she has delivered even while in the majority. But if we emptied Washington of everyone demonstrating extraordinary incompetence, nothing would get done because the place would be at least half empty. Whether or not that result would be better or worse for the country is left to the discretion of the reader.
As I suggested at the top of this article, it truly seems as if Ogles is engaged in little more than an election-season stunt. This proposal isn't going anywhere and it's not going to change the minds of any Democrats or potentially left-leaning voters. The way to beat Kamala Harris in November is to continually remind voters of how their lives were under the presidency of Donald Trump and how they have been over the past three and a half years. Then point out how Kamala Harris has supported each and every one of Joe Biden's policies while lying to the American people and covering up Joe Biden's cognitive decline while waiting on the sidelines for her chance to seize the golden ring for herself. Now that chance has arrived. We can't allow her to put it on. This isn't going to be solved by impeachment. It must be solved a the ballot box.
