Reply #9: I like and respect John Dean, but

[Time for change]

I've heard an awful lot of well informed opinions on impeachment that are very much at odds with what you're saying here. Could you have misinterpreted him? To say that there is no point in impeachment because people can refuse a Congressional subpoena is tantamount to saying that we may as well take the impeachment clause out of our Constitution because it is unenforceable. That simply cannot be true. I have two very strong qualms with that statement, if that is indeed what Dean meant:

1) Mountains of evidence have already been accumulated. There is no single person or group of persons whose testimony at this point is so crucial that impeachment and removal from office won't succeed without them.

2) Nobody has the legal right to refuse a Congressional subpoena, not even the president. That is what the balance of powers is all about. I don't know for certain what the precise mechanism of enforcement is, but I know that there is a way to enforce Congressional subpoenas as well as I know that I can't get away with deciding not to pay my income taxes just because I don't want to do it. Refusing a Congressional subpoena is a lot more serious than refusing to pay taxes.