Alan Dershowitz lost his mind on Fox News and is trying to get it back (unsuccessfully)

This is so mind-bogglingly wrong it’s hard to know where to begin.

The charitable view is that @AlanDersh has confused how much power kings past and present have had with Trump’s power as president (as the chief executive of the most powerful nation that has ever existed). 1/4

Apparent monarchist Alan Dershowitz: “Of course the President’s not the king. The President’s far more powerful than the king. The President has the power that kings have never had”

https://tinyurl.com/tah99by

But of course that isn’t the issue at all.

The real issue is how much power a president has under the Constitution in a divided government, where the Framers went out of their way to make sure that the president WASN’T a monarch — much less someone even more powerful. 2/4

Dershowitz is also dead wrong about the political consequences of Judge Jackson’s ruling yesterday, as I pointed out here. 3/4

Judge Jackson’s ruling today striking down the WH’s claim of absolute immunity for WH aidesJudge Jackson ruled today that McGahn had to at least show up in response to his Congressional subpoena. Her ruling was also expansive, implying the same judicial stripping of claims of absolute…https://tinyurl.com/wdsrp6j

Are Dershowitz, who has clearly lost his mind, and other Trump enablers trying to drown us in so much nonsense because they think that we’ll just get exhausted trying to deal with it all and win a war of attrition against us? 4/4

PS1/ After writing this, I see that Dershowitz realized he has embarrassed himself and wants to take back the plain meaning of what he said.

Alan Dershowitz on Twitter“‘Presidents are not kings’ — but neither is Congress above the law https://t.co/9nU4F8dBwd”https://tinyurl.com/wjnfvka

PS2/ He’s also written an op-ed for The Hill where he attempts to ‘splain his position more coherently and plausibly.

‘Presidents are not kings’ — but neither is Congress above the lawSomeone does not seem to understand how our constitutional system of checks and balances is supposed to work.https://tinyurl.com/s6rtsp7

PS3/ His argument is based implicitly on the claim that the presidency and Congress are co-equal branches of government, though the Framers themselves never put it that way. Moreover, the claim is not true. Congress is first among equals (primus inter pares) in the Constitution,

PS4/ because it is Congress that writes the laws, and the Senate has the constitutional authority to make a bill a law even over a presidential veto.

PS5/ Dershowitz’s claim that Congress has to “obey the law” in a confrontation over impeachment is nonsense.

When it comes to impeachment, Congress IS the law,

PS6/ because Congress has the final power under the Constitution to impeach anyone and everyone in the other two branches, but they cannot impeach and remove from office any member of Congress.

In short, impeachment and removal is a one way street.

PS7/ Here’s Jay Cost (of National Review) making the same point about Congress at greater length.

RTWT, Alan. Geez.

Congress Is Not a Coequal Branch of Government — It’s Supreme | National ReviewOur country has forgotten aspects of republicanism, especially the notion of self-government.https://tinyurl.com/y9sb9uuc

PS8/ Love it:

PS9/ And this:

PS10/ Note to Alan: If the litigation gets to the Supreme Court and the Court *were* to rule in favor of the Administration, Congress (House and Senate together) still has the power to impeach and remove Trump — in effect blowing off any decision by SCOTUS.

PS11/ There is nothing in the Constitution that requires Congress to adhere to those rulings, and in particular it could still include the Administrations’ refusal to comply with the subpoenas as grounds for impeachment and remove him from office anyway.

PS12/ That is, if SCOTUS rules against Congress over the subpoenas, and Congress doesn’t include the Administration’s stonewalling in the articles of impeachment, that will be Congress’s CHOICE. (Whether it would be wise for it to do so is another matter.)

That is the point.