Members of the House are the representatives of the sovereign — the People.

A very good, and much more articulate, explication of the current political charade going on in Congress. All this running around with impeachment matches but with no crime to light. It is destructive of the remaining threads of institutional credibility. And Lord knows, all three branches of government need to knit back together some cover of credibility.

From If the House Won’t Vote, Impeachment Inquiry Is Just a Democratic Stuntby Andrew C. McCarthy. Even at the beginning this looked like a manufactured political stunt being given air-cover by a politically sympathetic mainstream media. I could see no compelling evidence of a crime nor could I see any institutional movement towards actually conducting an impeachment. Impeaching a president is a serious business with established protocols and mechanisms. Nothing seemed to be happening. It looked like all that was happening was an effort to whip up a frenzy to cover a fishing expedition with no clear idea of what might be found. That is not impeachment. That is political shenanigans.

McCarthy gives form and specificity to my instinct.

It is not for the Speaker and her adjutants to decree that there is an inquiry.

‘The House of Representatives . . . shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”

It’s right there in black-and-white: In article I, section 2, clause 5, our Constitution vests the entirety of the power to call for removal of the president of the United States in a single body — the House.

Not in the Speaker of the House. In the House of Representatives. The institution, not one of its members.

To be sure, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a very powerful government official: second in the line of succession to the presidency; arguably, the most powerful member of Congress. She wields decisive influence on the business of her chamber. She even has the power to induce the House to vote on whether to conduct an impeachment inquiry.

But she does not have the power to impeach on her own.

A very informative essay, concluding with:

Only the House can impeach the president. If there is to be an inquiry about invoking this most solemn and consequential of the House’s powers, the House must vote to conduct it. It is not for the Speaker and her adjutants to decree that there is an inquiry. If the inquiry is to be legitimate, the House as a whole must decide to conduct it.

Members of the House are the representatives of the sovereign — the People. In November 2020, the People are scheduled to vote on whether Donald Trump should keep his job. If Democrats, who control the House, truly believe the president has committed impeachable offenses and is so unfit for his duties that we can’t wait just 13 months for the sovereign to render that verdict, then they should vote to conduct an impeachment inquiry. If they are afraid to vote on it, then they shouldn’t be doing it. And, as their committee chairmen are fond of saying, we should draw a negative inference against them.