Friday, November 15, 2013

Perspective: What Can Be Done When the CEO Fails to Perform His/Her Duties?

If the top officer of a profit or a non-profit organization were derelict of duty or caused the corporate interests, goals or mission to be in jeopardy, that person would surely be replaced as soon as possible. When the top officer is the President of the United States it is more difficult to take such action. In that case the People can make a replacement at the next election cycle, but if the issue is severe, and the next election is in the distant future, the elected representatives of the People might consider Impeachment of and Conviction for “High crimes and misdemeanors”.



The Founders anticipated such a need and placed in the Constitution. Article II Section 4 “ The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on Impeachment for and Conviction of Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Those who have researched the Framer’s intentions believe that the Framers used the word “High” to mean a person in a high place, not that the crime be high. In other words, the Framers believed the President of the United States is under a special obligation not applicable to the ordinary person, and by this the Framers meant that the President is legally responsible for everything that he and everyone in the executive branch is doing, and moreover, the President is not protected by “plausible deniability”



I deliberately highlighted  the last sentence because this President states that he only knows something if he reads it in the newspaper. If you watch him on TV you will see him say that over and over.



Consider these catastrophes involving the Executive Branch of our Government about which he deigns to know nothing. Is this dereliction of duty?

• Benghazi

• Fast and Furious

• The IRS

• Monitoring Media phones, etc.



Or consider how he unilaterally takes action where Congress has decided not to pass a law. Is this overreaching beyond his Constitutional authority?

• Cap and Trade to achieve his stated goal of destroying the coal industry



Or he avoids performing his duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed by his office. Isn’t he Constitutionally bound to uphold the entire law dully passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate?

• Selective enforcement of Obamacare

• Selective enforcement of the Immigration laws



Lying to the Voters! Doesn’t the oath of office cover truth telling to the citizens at all times?

• Telling the citizens over and over (33+ times) via TV that under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), their health insurance and doctor would not change, when he knew that they would



Actually the problem may be worse than the misdemeanors listed above. Obama ran and came into office vowing to “Transform America” to achieve “Social Justice”! Moreover, we know that Obama was a Saul Alinski protégé and a friend of Bill Ayers. Both men believed that an institution should be destroyed and then re-built. Alinsky actually wrote a book that is the bible for transforming institutions by destroying them. Its title is: “Rules For Radicals”. If Obama’s intention is to destroy America , and one could make a case for that considering the way he regards the Constitution, that would be Treasonable Act.



The Framers would certainly consider such performance to qualify as Impeachable. But the “Convict of” part would have to be implemented by the democrat controlled Senate



You will recall that a democrat controlled Senate refused to Convict President Clinton who was Impeached for lying to a grand jury about sexually harassing a female intern in our sacred Oval Office! That that democrat party would protect one of their own regardless of what the person did and regardless what the party could gain from his removal is amazing.



I am amazed to this day that the public has never received a proper explanation for the Senate’s behavior. In President Clinton’s case, the democrat controlled Senate could have replaced Clinton with Gore for the last two years of Clinton’s term, and then Gore would doubtless have won the Presidency on his own for the next eight years. In short they could have held the presidency for ten years while they did the honorable thing, namely, supporting women employees who are sexually assaulted by their CEO bosses. No, they were willing to let Clinton escape for violating the very law legislation the democrats promulgated and got passed into law that punished the crime of sexual harassment of an employee. And then, having been found guilty Clinton lied about it before a Grand Jury.



Oh, I forgot! Clinton did tell the truth when he said that “I have not had sexual relations with that woman”. You see the proper word for what he did is so repugnant that God had to destroy a city that had the same name (Sodom) for the same reason. And by the way, had the Senators been there at that destruction and looked back, they would be pillars of salt today. Come to think of it maybe that would not be too bad!



If Impeachment for, Conviction of and thus removal from office is not viable, what is left? There are two alternates, (1) do nothing and hope for the best or (2) elect members of the House of Representatives and Senate in 2014 that will do what they can to minimize the impending disaster.



Doing nothing is not an option, period. Therefore, we must do all we can to elect members of the House and Senate who will do what needs to be done to keep the President and his subordinates from doing more harm. But the problem is a tough one because Obama’s strategy is to use every tool he can to destroy the Republican control of the House in 2014.



So, the battle lines are clear, and we have our work cut out for us!