Can we “Pre-Impeach?”

Gingrich advocates the arrest of federal judges 

By Will Collette

Since Bill Clinton became President – ironically at the time Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House – it has become a Congressional tradition that every President will have at least one impeachment resolution filed against him.

Newt Gingrich set the standard that a President can be impeached for just about anything – like engaging in illicit sex as was the case with President Clinton. Of course, we now know that while Gingrich was pushing Clinton's impeachment, he himself was committing adultery with an aide who became Mrs. Callista Gingrich.

To woo and keep the third Mrs. Gingrich, Newt opened two lines of credit at Tiffany's - one for $250,000 and another for $1 million..

Anyway, the point is that Newt Gingrich thinks the impeachment of a President is simple and normal activity for the Congress.

But what about impeaching a candidate for President? Can we do that? Or can we pre-file an impeachment resolution just in case a candidate gets elected to Congress.

On Sunday’s “Face the Nation” political talk show on CBS, Gingrich stated that if Congress dislikes a decision by a federal judge, it had the power to subpoena that judge and order him/her to appear to face questions about that decision.

And what if the judge declines to appear (perhaps citing that this is a gross violation of the Constitutional separate of powers)? Well, said Gingrich, the Congress could dispatch the Capitol Police to arrest the judge.

“If you had to,” Gingrich said. “Or you’d instruct the Justice Department to send the U.S. Marshall.”

Article 1, Section 2 of the US Constitution provides that the House has “the sole power of impeachment” and Section 3 gives the Senate “the sole power to try all impeachments.” Unless Congress subjects a federal judge to the impeachment process, it has no Constitutional authority over a sitting federal judge. (Constitution, Article 3

Gingrich also defended remarks he had made previously asserting that Presidents had the authority to ignore any court decision they didn’t like, and could even disband a federal court to get rid of federal judges who make rulings the President doesn’t like.

“I got in this originally for two things: the steady encroachment of secularism through the courts to redefine America as a non-religious country and the encroachment of the courts on the president’s commander-in-chief powers, which is enormously dangerous,” Gingrich said.

If by chance Gingrich becomes the Republican Party nominee for President and then, woe onto us all, becomes President, would it not be wise, from an efficiency standpoint, to have an impeachment resolution ready to go, the first time Newt even thinks about this sort of mind-blowing breach of the Constitution?