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The Age of Impeachment: American Constitutional Culture Since 1960

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Why have there been so many attempted impeachments of officials in the last fifty years? Have public officials become more corrupt than in the past? Has society and its standards changed? Has something else taken place? "The Age of Impeachment," by David E. Kyvig of Northern Illinois University, seeks to answer these and related questions in an interesting and insightful narrative.

Taking a chronological approach, Kyvig suggests that recent history, essentially the last fifty years, has been dominated by a rise in impeachment as a political tool for ridding the public sphere of rivals. After an introductory chapter that lays out the themes of the book, Kyvig explores three efforts to impeach Federal judges. He then follows with individual chapters on the efforts to impeach Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon. He also includes individual chapters on the push to impeach Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Other case studies are also included, but in the end Kyvig suggests that the rise of an impeachment culture is detrimental to public life in the U.S. This may or may not be the case, but it is a conclusion that deserves serious reflection by all. This is an interesting and useful book about an important part of the American political landscape in the latter part of the twentieth century.

I disagree with the author's unarticulated major premise: the U.S. needs less not more impeachments. The result of impeachment and conviction is dismissal from office. In the private sector, employees are dismissed every day. Why should the public sector be any different? Many incompetent, entrenched and overpaid civil servants staff the bureaucracies of every federal department and agency. Why should they be immune from dismissal? Art. II, Sec. 4 of the Constitution provides that, "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. ". The author focuses on impeachment of the president, vice-president, and federal judges. But we should all be concerned with those other "civil officers" in the federal bureaucracy. Congress could classify many of their official acts as "misdemeanors". Other than the irresponsible public employee labor unions, what citizens would not celebrate if every four years Congress reviewed the performance of those senior "civil officers", and impeached, convicted, and removed from office those who are incompetent, entrenched and overpaid? We need more impeachments, not less.