Great, great little piece in NYT today, which interestingly enough they chose not to hide behind the evil Paywall. The author: Frank Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Not a big name, not a politician. Very nice writer though, and his logic (as well as politcal savvy) seems quite impeccable.

His topic: Should Congress impeach the Attorney General? That they can is unquestionable:

A cabinet officer, like a judge or a president, may be impeached only for commission of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But as the Nixon and Clinton impeachment debates reminded us, that constitutional phrase embraces not only indictable crimes but “conduct … grossly incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of our constitutional system of government.”

Emphasis added, because as we’ve said on possibly a time or two before, this is the heart of the matter.

He notes, aware of political realities, that the process would be difficult, but in that understated Midwestern way argues in essence that the Democrats—and any remaining Republicans who retain a devotion to the Constitution underneath it all—may need to make the sacrifice involved for the sake of restoring Constitutional government.

Because he’s right, accusations to the contrary this would be a sacrifice by Democrats, if only by taking time away from other, more immediately popular, and certainly necessary projects both investigative and legislative.

Instances of phony forgetfulness seem to abound throughout Mr. Gonzales’s testimony, but his claim to have no memory of the November Justice department meeting at which he authorized the attorney firings left even Republican stalwarts like Jeff Sessions of Alabama gaping in incredulity. The truth is almost surely that Mr. Gonzales’s forgetfulness is feigned — a calculated ploy to block legitimate Congressional inquiry into questionable decisions made by the Department of Justice, White House officials and, quite possibly, the president himself.

My honest opinion? This would be an incredibly difficult, even dangerous project to undertake while the forces of anti-Constitutionalism control the media. The public likely Would Not Be Amused even those already interested enough to see the dangers of the pollution of the nation’s justice system that’s already been carried out.

Any parent—or dog trainer for that matter— knows that you never give a command that you know you cannot enforce—but once an order is given it must be enforced or you will lose all power of authority and spend ten times as long reestablishing it from scratch. It is not enough that Gonzales personally go from office, he must be forced from office and the grounds for this ouster clearly understood by all.

But as somebody once said in another context, “We chose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” We may need to get behind this hard thing. Go read, and decide.