Fun Facts:

Interned for then-Sen. Bob Kasten, R-Wis., and then in the Ronald Reagan White House.

Clerked [with John fucking Woo] for GOP appointees Judge Laurence Silberman [to know Silberman is to love him] of the D.C. Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

In 1994, he accepted a job in the D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis [Oh my Starrs]

Clement collaborated with the conservative American Center for Law & Justice on two amicus briefs in Bush v. Gore, supporting George W. Bush on behalf of Republican voters.

Principal deputy to Solicitor General Theodore Olson

Clement [was] tasked with shepherding high-stakes terrorism cases, including those of enemy combatants Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi, through the lower courts.

Adjudged by John Ashcroft as “one of the brightest legal minds in the country.”

Need I fucking say more?

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

Now, instead of a creepy affect-less sociopathic teabagging crony, we get a competent, and extremely wired winger ideologue.

Gee, I can hear The Mighty Wurlitzer cranking up the “Ideology Shouldn’t Count” tocatta and fugue already.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

Just quitting won’t be enough, necessarily.

An impeachment trial for a secretary of war occupied much of the Senate’s time during May 1876.

At issue was the behavior of William Belknap, war secretary in the administration of President Ulysses Grant. A former Iowa state legislator and Civil War general, Belknap had held his cabinet post for nearly eight years. In the rollicking era that Mark Twain dubbed the Gilded Age, Belknap was famous for his extravagant Washington parties and his elegantly attired first and second wives. Many questioned how he managed such a grand life style on his $8,000 government salary.

By early 1876, answers began to surface. A House of Representatives’ committee uncovered evidence supporting a pattern of corruption blatant even by the standards of the scandal-tarnished Grant administration.

….

On March 2, 1876, just minutes before the House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on articles of impeachment, Belknap raced to the White House, handed Grant his resignation, and burst into tears.

This failed to stop the House. Later that day, members voted unanimously to send the Senate five articles of impeachment, charging Belknap with “criminally disregarding his duty as Secretary of War and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.”

Sigh. They knew how to write a fucking indictment in those days, didd’nthey? Ahem, to resume the narrative:

The Senate convened its trial in early April, with Belknap present, after agreeing that it retained impeachment jurisdiction over former government officials. During May, the Senate heard more than 40 witnesses, as House managers argued that Belknap should not be allowed to escape from justice simply by resigning his office.

On August 1, 1876, the Senate rendered a majority vote against Belknap on all five articles. As each vote fell short of the necessary two thirds, however, he won acquittal. Belknap was not prosecuted further; he committed suicide in 1890.

So Al might want to do his “unwinding” from the pressures of his maladministration in a country lacking extradition treaties with the US. I hear Paraguay is lovely this time of year.

via Senate.gov.

h/t to Jim at the House of Gray Spanish Turtlenecks.