By: Usg 2010

Usg 2010
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 11:30:20 +0000

The president doesn’t impeach. Congress does. So it’s the USG Senate that is im charge of this impeachment process – Celia couldn’t suggest it and wouldn’t get to vote.

To the author: Is it really a secret ballot? Every year the Lantern writes that USG votes on issues by secret ballot, and 90% of the time it is false reporting. We only vote on end-of-year awards by secret ballot, and usually any vote that is controversial is pushed to a roll call vote (though not likely to roll call vote in the case of impeachment). I bet it was a raise-the-hands vote, but done in executive session (no reporters or audience in the room) to keep the justices’ privacy intact. You’ll notice how the injured justices have quotes, but the senate is not quoted for the sake of professionalism – the vote of the entire body is the message, not a single senator’s voice out of 40.

Just because journalists are not allowed in when discussing matters of impeachment (so as to allow free debate among senators) does NOT mean that the ballot was secret. Likely there was no paper ballot at all – and a raise of hands is not secret. The Lantern also implies a shadiness to it, despite the fact that most city councils have Executive Sessions on a weekly basis. USG does it maybe four times a year, on highly sensitive matters regarding personnel.

Why are you calling it the General Assembly? The official title is USG Senate, and just as you wouldn’t refer to it as the “Senate” exclusively in an written article (implying Washington, D.C.), I have no clue what you mean by General Assembly. It makes me think of state government, or the title of a parliament in a foreign country. And I WAS a USG senator just a few years ago!