Scandal, Impeachment , Conviction 1621, of Sir Francis Bacon Keeper of the Great Seal of England. Parliament used an old weapon , one that had lain unused for more than 300 years - the process of impeachment, by which members of the Commons serving as investigators with the Lords as judges could act against officialdom. The charge was bribery. Bacon was investigated and found guilty. His letter confessing such and basicly pleading it was common practice for all judges to take bribes , served to no avail. His defender after his conviction and banishment from ever serving in public office was Basil Montagu. He tried to exonerate Bacon by arguing that all judges in the 17 century took bribes. That was answered by an essay about Bacon, published in 1837 by Thomas McCauley. McCauley wrote, " That these practices were common, we admit. But they were common just as all wickedness to which there is strong temptation always was and always will be common. They were common , just as theft, cheating, perjury, adultery have always been common. They were common , though prohibited by law. They were common not because people did not know what was right, but because people like to do what was wrong. They were common, though condemned by public opinion. They were common, as every crime will be common when the gain to it will be great, and the chance of punishment small. But, though common, they were universally allowed to be altogether unjustifiable; they were in the highest degree odious; and, though many were guilty of them, none had the audacity publicly to avow and defend them. Source : Horizon, Winter 1974, pages 35, 36 and 37. Article by Harvey Marshall Matusow.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The catch phrase of the day then was," Let us have law and order until it suits us to break the law." A philosophy Obama excels at replicating often. Impeachment is not a heavily used action in our history. It is a bit more complicated now than it was in England in 1621 but still the principle remains rock solid. That our Representatives are entrusted with great power to do our bidding and corruption simply can not be allowed to be a common occurrence. Obama has a great many transgressions not all of which rise to the level of impeachment but of that great many more than one does reach that level. And one is all that it takes. Our founders by way of the Constitution saw fit to include high crimes and misdemeanors in that list of transgressions that are impeachable offenses. My question is , does anybody truly believe he is not guilty of even one!!??? --Tyr