Word: impeach
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...days before they finished writing the Constitution, the men working on it stumbled on an unresolved question: Under what circumstances should Congress be able to impeach the President? No doubt tired of parsing legalisms after months of work, they took only about five minutes to dispense with the constitutional crisis. They had already decided that treason and bribery were no-brainers--definitely grounds for impeachment--but George Mason of Virginia said he was concerned that those two crimes didn't capture "many great and dangerous offenses." So he suggested adding "maladministration" to the list of impeachable no-nos. When others...
...Impeachment, by the way, is voted by the House--think of it as an indictment--but removal (conviction) is decided after a Senate trial. The framers were clear that impeachment is a solemn matter; to its credit, the House has generally taken the responsibility seriously. It has voted to impeach only one President and 15 other men--13 judges; President Ulysses Grant's Secretary of War; and Senator William Blount of Tennessee, who tried in the 1790s to get Indian tribes to invade Florida and Louisiana (then owned by Spain), kill a bunch of people and force the survivors' allegiance...
...might be right to impeach him, but on the second year of a second term, I don't know if it's wise," said another member of the audience...
Dershowitz expressed doubts that there were substantial legal grounds to impeach, arguing that the charge of perjury wasn't deemed an impeachable offense when President Nixon was found to have lied on his tax returns...
...television talk show appearance on Sunday, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) stated that he had not made up his mind about whether he was going to vote to impeach President Clinton because of his conduct in the Lewinsky matter...