Bill, this looks like some strange gold bug's view, not particularly Australian. Prime ministers resign in parliamentary systems all the time, but we don't have such a system. I wouldn't comment on the article in general, but the first history they bring up seems wrong.
It is worth noting here that Richard Nixon did not wait for the House vote. He resigned before it was scheduled to take place. Nixon knew he would be impeached in the House. He suspected, with good reason, that the Senate would not muster the 66% of the vote necessary to force him to leave office. He decided not to wait to find out. Mr Clinton, in his speech shortly after the impeachment was handed down, indicated that he has no intention of resigning.
This isn't right, at least according to Woodward and Bernstein in The Final Days. Nixon resigned when the "smoking gun" tapes were released, which was after the House Judiciary committee voted, in a bipartisan vote, to send the matter to the full House. He was told, at that point (after the final, unedited tapes were turned over), he had maybe 100 votes in the House, and very little chance in the Senate. He would have fought if he thought he had a chance. He rightly thought the Senate wouldn't convict? That's not the way I remember it. No one can say for sure, but the House Judiciary Republicans split about 50-50 on impeachment, and that was before the worst evidence came out. I recall some kind of pro-forma revote after the new evidence where only 2 of the 37? committee members voted not to impeach.
The other stuff in that article is pretty windy for some obscure point about gold. |
