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Lawmakers reluctant to consider impeaching Gov. Ralph Northam, Virginia House speaker says
Virginian Pilot ^ | 4 Feb 2019 | Marie Albiges

Posted on 02/04/2019 8:24:45 AM PST by csvset

RICHMOND

The speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates renewed his call for Gov. Ralph Northam’s resignation Monday, but stopped short of saying the House would start any efforts to force the governor out.

“I think there’s a rightful hesitation about a removal from office,” Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, said. “Impeachment — that’s a very high standard.”

He said he hasn’t spoken to Northam since the Democratic governor admitted he posed in either blackface or in Ku Klux Klan robes when he was a student at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1984 — an admission Northam recanted less than 24 hours later.

Minutes before his Republican caucus met to begin the work day, Cox said the political chaos surrounding the racist photo that appeared on the governor’s medical school yearbook page was “painful” and “heartbreaking.”

Today is a tough day,” he told reporters Monday morning as legislators gathered back in Richmond for the first time since the photo scandal began Friday afternoon.

Lawmakers Monday morning seemed to be in agreement that a lot of legislative work needed to get done today. The House has 150 pages’ worth of bills to get through, and Cox said he expected the work day to go until at least 7 p.m.

“It’s our obligation to get things done,” he said. “We just have to do our job, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Adding to the possible distractions legislators face today, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax released a statement Monday morning denying allegations of sexual assault that Big League Politics — the same conservative news outlet that first posted the racist photo — wrote about Sunday night.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: California; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: blackface; california; cox; dukeuniversity; fairfax; justinfairfax; kirkcox; meredithwatson; metoo; muhdik; northam; ralphnortham; vanessatyson; virginia
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Well, this circus is fairly entertaining. Popcorn 🍿 anyone ? If the Fairfax allegations gain traction , the Dems really are in for hard time.
1 posted on 02/04/2019 8:24:45 AM PST by csvset
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To: csvset

Just a distraction away from his signing of baby part trafficking as a result of their abortion law.


2 posted on 02/04/2019 8:26:38 AM PST by WKUHilltopper
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To: csvset
They shouldn't impeach him.

Leave him in office, and drape that photo around his neck every time he tries to pursue his agenda.

And use the photo in GOP campaign ads for the next 500 years.

3 posted on 02/04/2019 8:27:06 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: csvset

What would the grounds for impeachment be?


4 posted on 02/04/2019 8:27:51 AM PST by Cowboy Bob ("Other People's Money" = The life blood of Liberalism)
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To: csvset

Sorry but this guy isn’t getting impeached over this... and he shouldn’t be...

If all they have is some racially insensitive photo from 35 years ago, the only way he leaves is by resigning... Can’t see any serious impeachment happening over that.

But the left eating its own is always entertaining.


5 posted on 02/04/2019 8:28:03 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: csvset

Go ahead, retain him. We can hang this albatross around the neck of the Dems for years to come.

THIS is what the Dems support.


6 posted on 02/04/2019 8:28:11 AM PST by fwdude (Think about it: Blacks were made slaves in Africa, but were made free men in America.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Agree...hope he stays right where he is.


7 posted on 02/04/2019 8:28:33 AM PST by Col Frank Slade
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To: Alberta's Child

Northam could be more useful to ‘Progressives’ in his compromised position. He’s be steppin and fetchin at their slightest whim.


8 posted on 02/04/2019 8:29:33 AM PST by griswold3 (Just another unlicensed nonconformist in a dangerous Liberal world.)
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To: csvset

We’ll all recall that we retained control of the chamber by one vote in a tied election in one district. If I were the speaker I wouldn’t touch impeachment with a ten foot pole. This is the rats problem and they need to deal with it. If they don’t a great issue to use against them in the next election. Plus you wouldn’t want to give the boys and girls in the Congress to try to analogies Northam to trump ( there’s no reasonable basis to do so, but that won’t stop them)


9 posted on 02/04/2019 8:30:58 AM PST by j.havenfarm ( 2,000 posts as of 1/16/19. A FReeper since 2000; never shutting up!)
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To: csvset

I like my popcorn salted with caramel thank you.


10 posted on 02/04/2019 8:31:17 AM PST by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: csvset

Over a picture of him from 1984? It’s not about the picture. That’s a distraction. The dems brought this up right away after the governor let the cat out of the bag over the dem party intentions over abortion - they plan to allow baby killing at will, with no restrictions, and to force us to pay for it.


11 posted on 02/04/2019 8:31:58 AM PST by I want the USA back (In any war between the civilized world and the savage support the civilized man. -Geller.)
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To: csvset

He’ll do a ‘Clinton’ and say he must get down to doing the peoples’ business..............


12 posted on 02/04/2019 8:33:05 AM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: csvset
You can't impeach a guy for putting black paint on his face and taking a picture of it 30 years ago. It doesn't even come close to meeting the standards for grounds of impeachment. His calling for mass murder of babies AFTER they have been born however....
Having said that, impeachment is almost always political.
13 posted on 02/04/2019 8:34:15 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: csvset

Leave him be, let him twist in the wind.


14 posted on 02/04/2019 8:36:34 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: griswold3
Actually, it's the other way around.

The GOP controls the Virginia legislature by a slim margin. This charade gives them political cover to ignore the @sshole entirely -- no matter how much "steppin' and fetchin'" he does for the progressive wing of the Democrat Party.

15 posted on 02/04/2019 8:36:59 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: HamiltonJay
Hey...can't VA do a recall like they did in Wisconsin....
16 posted on 02/04/2019 8:38:02 AM PST by mastertex
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To: csvset

He’s a democrat... already ‘the press’ is dropping the story.


17 posted on 02/04/2019 8:39:55 AM PST by GOPJ (Does anyone really want America to be more like Tallahassee, South Bend or Newark? - - Greenfield)
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To: csvset

Impeachment is only for behavior while in office. As much as I dislike Northam, he did not violate law while in office. His support for infanticide could be considered an ethics violation and he should be investigated for that. But a photo from 30 years past is not an impeachable offence, unless the accused is Republican.


18 posted on 02/04/2019 8:40:18 AM PST by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: csvset

If a reporter asked this question, the reply should be, while the picture is reprehensible, on what legal grounds would we have to impeach him?


19 posted on 02/04/2019 8:40:38 AM PST by Old Teufel Hunden
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To: Cowboy Bob
What would the grounds for impeachment be?

That is the $64,000 dollar question. What “crime” did he commit ? As per the Virginia constitution, it states :

Article IV. Legislature
Section 17. Impeachment

The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, judges, members of the State Corporation Commission, and all officers appointed by the Governor or elected by the General Assembly, offending against the Commonwealth by malfeasance in office, corruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime or misdemeanor may be impeached by the House of Delegates and prosecuted before the Senate, which shall have the sole power to try impeachments.

When sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the Commonwealth; but the person convicted shall nevertheless be subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. The Senate may sit during the recess of the General Assembly for the trial of impeachments.

20 posted on 02/04/2019 8:45:22 AM PST by csvset (illegitimi non carborundum)
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