The Double Dog Impeachment Dare Impeachment Is the Casu Marzu of Legislating Morality by BRIAN A
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V25, N7 Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019 The double dog impeachment dare Impeachment is the casu marzu of legislating morality By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS – If the act of legislating is considered “sausage making,” a reference to the often disgusting casing of meat into intestinal links, then the process of impeaching an Ameri- can president is more like casu marzu (maggot cheese), Filipino century eggs or Kopi luwak. Impeach- ment is an American tragedy with messy, unsatisfactory outcomes and In some cases, civic emotions can run to the an array of unintended consequenc- extreme, with Indianapolis rioting and a Hoosier killed in es. Presidential defenders like Indiana U.S. Rep. David an 1868 street gunfight when President Andrew Johnson Dennis in 1974 can find themselves betrayed by President attempted to defend himself and assail his congressional Nixon. Fierce loyalists like U.S. Rep. Earl Landgrebe and rivals on his disastrous “swing around the circle” tour. In four of his colleagues would go down to defeat that year. Continued on page 3 Our historic CD maps By TREVOR FOUGHTY INDIANAPOLIS – A large part of the appeal of Guinness World Records is the obscurity of the records they track. Indeed, obscurity has always been the point: Ireland’s most famous brewery began publishing the book “We are blessed that there were in 1955 as a way to help settle arcane pub bets. no Americans killed in this at- I may not be very useful tack, but anytime you have an act if you’re interesting in knowing where the largest collection of of war of this nature, there’s a Batman memorabilia is located, risk that could happen. This is an but I do feel a bit like the Guin- ness folks when I’m asked about attack of a scale we’ve not seen some obscure piece of Indiana political history. Of course, I also before.” relish the opportunity to dig in a - Secretary of State Mike little more and provide additional context. Pompeo, blaming Iran. Page 2 Such was the case last week, congressional maps put in place in when Brian Howey pointed out to me 1833 are a great starting point for this that not a single congressional district exercise. Since that time, we’ve had in Indiana has switched parties since 21 different maps across 93 differ- our current maps were implemented ent elections. But if you do the math, for the 2012 election. That begs you’ll quickly notice that just barely the question: If there is no change averages four elections for each map. in 2020, will that be the first time So what gives? Indiana has ever witnessed a congres- For most of our history, we Howey Politics Indiana sional map that produced no partisan haven’t automatically (and only) turnover? drawn new maps after the federal WWWHowey Media, LLC There isn’t quite a straight- decennial census; that has only been 405 Massachusetts Ave., forward “yes” or “no” answer, which done since the 1972 maps. Prior to Suite 300 Indianapolis, IN fortunately means I get to dig in and that, the timeline for drawing maps 46204 provide some context. wasn’t consistent, and map lifespans www.howeypolitics.com Let’s start ranged anywhere from one to 11 here: Over the first elections. decade and a half of But even given this irregu- Brian A. Howey, Publisher our state’s existence, larity, there are some interesting Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington new counties were trends that emerge regarding Mary Lou Howey, Editor constantly being partisan turnover. We’ll start by Susan E. Joiner, copy editor formed, and the throwing out the two maps that population was grow- were only used for one election, ing and shifting quite since turnover isn’t possible without Subscriptions a bit. As a result, at least two elections. Seven maps HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 we were constantly were in place for only two or three HPI Weekly, $350 tweaking our con- elections (and none for just four). gressional district Even then, six of those seven maps Ray Volpe, Account Manager lines. Additionally, we saw partisan turnover. The map in 317.602.3620 never had more than three seats in place for the elections of 1896, 1898, email: [email protected] this period, and each basically was a and 1900 is the only one of this group skinny sliver that ran from the Michi- that saw no turnover. gan line down to the Ohio River. Eight more maps (not Contact HPI What makes these formative including our current map) were in [email protected] years even tougher to judge from a place for five elections, but we’ll come Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 historical perspective is the absence of back to them momentarily. The long- Washington: 202.256.5822 modern political parties. The Demo- lasting maps are worth looking at first, crat Party as we know it today was because they were as volatile as the Business Office: 317.602.3620 essentially organized in 1828 around short terms maps. One map was in Andrew Jackson’s presidential cam- place for eight elections, and another © 2019, Howey Politics paign. In 1832, a second national one for 10 elections. Neither of them Indiana. All rights reserved. party popped up to support Henry ever went more than two elections Photocopying, Internet forward- Clay in his bid against Jackson and the (just four years) without some parti- Democrats. Up to this point, the par- san turnover. An additional map was ing, faxing or reproducing in ties existed solely for the presidential in place for 11 elections, and it never any form, whole or part, is a campaigns. went more than three elections (six violation of federal law without By the mid 1830’s, however, years) without turnover. So whether permission from the publisher. the parties also began to slate candi- short or long, it would be unusual for dates for down-ballot races, including Indiana to see more than two or three congressional races. Around this same elections in a row with the same parti- Jack E. Howey time, our county-formation boom was san results. editor emeritus nearing its end, and our population And what about those five- 1926-2019 had quickly grown enough to bump election maps we’re used to now? The us from three to seven congressional same trend largely holds. Of the eight seats (and we’ve always had at least in place before 2012, four of them seven ever since). saw partisan turnover in every single All of this means that the election (maps from 1833, 1843, Page 3 1901, and 1972). Three more never went more than two all about the numbers. There are some fascinating stories elections (four years) without at least one seat changing about quickly abandoned experiments with at-large con- parties (1931, 1981, and 2001). That only leaves one, gressional districts; the General Assembly’s refusal to draw the maps drawn in 1991, which saw a Republican wave in maps for 40 years to preserve power for rural legislators; 1994 that never receded and produced the same partisan and the constant legal battles that saw Indiana draw doz- results in each district from 1994-2000. ens of maps in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, among others. That four-election span was the only time prior I look forward to telling some of those stories over to 2012-2018 that Indiana had seen such a streak. That the next year and a half as we prepare to see new maps means that not only are the current maps currently in a tie once again. In the meantime, you can see every version of for that record, but they have a chance to break the record Indiana’s historical congressional maps on my website at in 2020. But to answer our original question, it would mark www.CapitolAndWashington.com. only the second time that Indiana witnessed a congressio- And if you’re really curious, according to Guinness, nal map with no partisan turnover, but the first time that the world’s largest collection of Batman memorabilia is a map in place for more than three elections achieved the located in Indianapolis.v feat. Of course, the stories of these sorts maps aren’t Foughty publishes at CapitolAndWashington.com. “I believe the crimes committed here demonstrate that he Impeachment, from page 1 is capable of lying routinely whenever it is convenient. He the case of the Clinton prosecution, Republicans reacted is not trustworthy.” with hyper-sensation while the general public didn’t give a Like the Johnson impeachment that found Indi- rat’s ass. ana’s senators split – Democrat U.S. Sen. Thomas Hen- Eight presidents, beginning with John Tyler in dricks voted to convict on three articles; Republican U.S. 1842, have faced the prospect of impeachment without Sen. Oliver P. Morton voted to acquit – that occurred once results, including Presidents Grover Cleveland, Herbert again in 1999. Hoover, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. “Clearly the president’s behavior was wrong,” said Bush. Three presidents – Johnson in 1868, Richard Nixon Democrat U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh on one of his first votes in 1974 and Bill Clinton in 1998 – have had articles drawn and voted. In two out of three cases that extended into U.S. House commit- tee votes, it occurred without the majority support of the American people. Both Johnson and Clinton were indicted in the House and faced a Senate trial, and both were acquitted, Johnson by a single vote just months before he was due to leave office over a law that has since been deemed unconstitutional.