Bill Clinton's behavior in office is clearly outrageous, to say nothing of criminal. There is an element missing in the Constitution with regard to removing a sitting President from office; a vote of confidence or no-confidence by the electorate which would REQUIRE a President to RESIGN. I suspect Clinton in February or March would have lost such a test.
Let me set up a hypothetical situation (not really that far-fetched) that would illustrate the need for just such a measure as an amendment to the Constitution as outlined above - a measure for which the American people would beg and weep.
A colorful, flamboyant lawyer and life-long politician and Congressman, William Jefferson Jones decides to run for the Presidency. Whether by accident or design, he wins his party's nomination, and after a successful, hard-fought campaign, he wins a narrow victory in November and is sworn into office in January. Jones is a divorced man, having exited a rocky marriage (which produced children) some years before. That fact has not impaired his acceptance by the electorate. Further, he has not been touched by even a hint of scandal whatsoever throughout his public life.
A few months after inauguration, he decides that he no longer can live a "lie". He calls a press conference and declares to the world and most specifically to the American people, that he is a "closet" homosexual and is today coming out of that "closet" forever. He must, after all be "true to his real self" and can do that only by abandoning the "closet".
And he does so with a vengeance. He has a "coming-out" party at the WH and proceeds to live an even more flamboyant lifestyle now as a homosexual. He has done nothing criminal, but the America public is stunned by this new turn of events and utterly revolted by his new lifestyle. The polls indicate an overwhelming majority want him to resign. Period. HE REFUSES TO DO SO. And the American people are unable to do anything else under current law.
Should WE be forced to see this man make a shameful and horrendous mockery of the Presidency and our sensibilities for the duration of his term?
I think not. Clearly this is not the man the American people voted into office originally. What do we do? What can we do? |
