The Uselessness Of Impeachment

A commenter on Ezra Klein’s blog points out impeachment doesn’t work quite the way the founders envisioned it anymore:

The fundamental problem is that, when they wrote the Constitution, the Founders failed to foresee the emergence of political parties (which they disapproved of). Checks and balances between branches don’t work if the leaders of the different branches are all from the same party. The Framers placed a big bet on the nonexistence of the party system, and they lost. This became clear as soon as 1800, when the Constitution had to be amended to change the Presidential election process after the Burr/Jefferson fiasco. That, unfortunately, also eviscerated the impeachment process because it meant that another member of the President’s party would take power. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. (emphasis mine)

# 2007 Oct 24