Reply #96: The duty of the House is to accuse --- to impeach. Well within range.

[pat_k]

Their oath is an individual oath, their duty an individual duty. Even if no other member of the House joins them, each Member is obligated by oath to stand up, accuse, introduce draft articles, and call on their colleagues to join them.

Anything less is dereliction of duty and complicity.

As I have said before, "Can't win, so don't fight" is perhaps the most insidious and destructive of all the rationalizations for dereliction of duty.

If you told people who are fighting to eradicate AIDS or poverty or hunger that "it won't happen, so shut up" I can't imagine you would expect -- or even want -- any of them to listen to you.

A prosecutor who refused to charge a lynch mob with murder because he believed that an all white jury would acquit would be beneath contempt.

A soldier who disobeys an order because they believe the battle is lost would be court-martialed.