Impeachment Proceedings Against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton: A Comedy of Errors
In a stunning turn of events, the Texas House General Investigating Committee voted unanimously in favor of not one, not two, but 20 articles of impeachment against the state’s attorney general. Can you believe it?
The committee members looking serious as they contemplate whether to impeach or just take a nap – Image source: Breitbart
But wait! It gets better! The vote on the floor for Paxton’s impeachment could occur by this weekend. How exciting!
The committee is composed of three Republicans and two Democrats who put their political differences aside to impeach someone from their own party – such unity brings tears to our eyes.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Paxton was not too pleased with these developments and called it a “sad day for Texas.” He accused the House’s “liberal” Republican Speaker, Dade Phelan, of being the mastermind behind this “illegitimate attempt to overthrow the will of the people and disenfranchise voters.”
Chairman Andrew Murr (R-Kerrville), who presided over the proceedings, sounded like he had better things to do than impeach someone publicly elected to represent them.
“I don’t have a timeline for when we’ll wrap this up. Who knows? Maybe never.” Said Chairman Murr with a shrug of his shoulders.
The Texas Constitution is quite different from our beloved constitution in terms of impeachment procedures. For one thing, under Texas’ constitution, they can impeach an attorney general with only simple majority vote – those Texans sure know how to make things easy!
And if Paxton does get sacked by the House’s hasty decision-making process (why not flip a coin instead?), he would immediately be suspended from office until trial time in front of all 31 (!) members of the Senate acting as jurors. Sounds like fun!
If found guilty by these unbiased senators (we’re chuckling at that thought too!), it would require two-thirds vote to remove him officially from office.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick couldn’t contain his excitement about presiding over such an illustrious event:
“I don’t cast a vote but I’d love my picture taken while sitting on that big chair,” said Lt. Governor casually.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it looks like Ken Paxton’s fate hangs in balance while everyone else plays politics. What fun! We can only wait and wonder what other silly things will happen while we’re all too busy bickering amongst ourselves. Oh well, it’s just another day in politics.
To view the HR02377I — Article of Impeachment Against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton document as voted out by the House General Investigating Committee with a straight face, click here.
