Thoughts On Impeachment, The Black Blogger
"The Constitution also allows for involuntary removal from office. The President, Vice-President, Cabinet Secretaries, and other executive officers, as well as judges, may be impeached by the House of Representatives and tried in the Senate.
Any official convicted by the Senate is immediately removed from office. The Senate may also choose to bar the removed official from holding any federal office in the future. No other punishments may be inflicted pursuant to the impeachment proceeding, but the convicted party remains liable to trial and punishment in the courts for civil and criminal charges."
"It is clear in the United States Constitution that the impeachment process of any executive officer from the President on down to Federal judges begins with the United States House of Representatives impeachment proceedings and ends in the United States Senate with the trial. Once the sitting President is impeached by a simple majority of the United States House of Representatives then the case is forwarded to the United States Senate. In any US Senate trial involving the United States President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would preside over the trial. In any case below that of the office of President, the Senate President or the United States Vice President would preside over the trial. After deliberation by the current sitting United States Senators, a super majority or 2/3 of the Senate body must vote to convict the United States President, and he/she would be immediately removed from office. Once removed the former President would be liable for indictments outside the realm of the United States Senate."
So it is pretty clear to me that the key decision maker right now is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She can either decide to move the impeachment of Donald Trump forward in the House of Representatives or sit on the process by slow-walking the processes to an inevitable stalemate. Pelosi knows that she has the votes in a democratically controlled House to get the simple majority of both the Judiciary Committee and current House of Representatives to succeed in passing Articles of Impeachment. However, Pelosi also knows that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican from the Blue Grass State of Kentucky would kill any attempt to bring about a true United States Senate trial of Donald Trump's criminal actions. It will probably be a joke of a proceeding but neither the less the Senate trial must take place once the House approves Articles of Impeachment.
So the question is this for Pelosi is the effort to succeed in passing Articles of Impeachment against Trump worth the effort to see that impeachment action evaporate upon arrival on Mitch McConnell's desk? Pelosi is talking about dividing the nation. Well, Nancy Pelosi, the United States cannot be any more divided. I would think you would have a weakened Trump heading into a Presidential election possibly against an emboldened democratic party nominee with a new wave of support from a renewed Democratic Party Convention. So, Nancy Pelosi, you need to make the decision now to start the proceedings and force the issue onto the desk of Senator McConnell and the Republican Party leadership. If they choose to bypass the system and your impeachment proceeding uncover criminal obstruction wrong-doings. Then the Republicans will be facing possible an angry electorate besides the stringent party loyalists. Which isn't going to be a good situation for them. They will stand to lose more seats in the House and possibly control of both the Senate and the White House. So stop bulljving Nancy Pelosi get the ball rolling and move this situation to closure.