Final Word from Wednesday, September 25, 2019

In announcing yesterday that the U.S. House of Representatives would, after all, launch an impeachment inquiry against Pres. Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the Democrats said that "the actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution." The impeachment inquiry has not yet begun, but the speaker of the House already knows the outcome. As the lower house of the Czech Parliament prepares to take a vote tomorrow on impeaching its own president, Pelosi's position corresponds to that of most of the Czech opposition parties. They insist that Miloš Zeman has violated the Constitution, without even bothering to ask whether the violations are "serious," as required for removing him from office. The exception is ODS, and esp. Chair Petr Fiala and MP Marek Benda. They're certainly not against removing Zeman, but only for well-founded and "serious" reasons. They're the closest things Czech politics currently has to statesmen. [ Czech Republic United States of America complaint Senate gross ]