Impeaching Cabinet Secretaries

Published: July 29, 2007, 2:05 pm

Following on the New York Times editorial calling for the impeachment of Alberto Gonzales if a special prosecutor isn't appointed, Josh Marshall takes the historical view of impeachments of Cabinet members. Turns out, it's only happened once: Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, impeached after his resignation. So this means that in almost 220 years of history under the constitution, the impeachment power has never been used to remove a cabinet secretary from office. Not once. And that's really saying something. But the reason isn't that hard to figure given the structure of our government. The normal course when a cabinet secretary has been implicated in grave wrongdoing or has lost the confidence of the overwhelming number of senators (which I think he clearly has, though partisan loyalty has kept many Republicans from saying it) is for him or her to resign. And if they won't see fit to resign the president fires them since if nothing else the person can't fulfill the

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