Double Cruz

   What's next for the Birthers?

   A Texas newspaper has reportedly found and printed the birth certificate of Republican Senator and Tea Party darling Ted Cruz, a potential presidential aspirant. It seems he was born in Canada, and his father was a native of Cuba who was working in Calgary at the time. News reports said this revelation puts a damper on the senator's presidential hopes, much as the Birthers claimed that Barack Obama was not an American citizen because he was supposedly not born in America, and moreover, his father was from Kenya.
   To be rational, the same standard should apply to all, whether Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, Tea Party firebrand or pragmatic centrist. And the same standard should have been applied to Sen. John McCain, the GOP nominee in 2008, who was born in Panama.
   In fact, applying the same standard -- specified in the Constitution -- means that all three qualify as "natural born citizens" of the United States. The Constitution does not require that the candidate be "native born."
   Sen. Cruz is a natural born citizen, because his mother was American. President Obama qualifies because his mother was American. And both of Sen. McCain's parents were American. His father was military, stationed in the Panama Canal Zone.
   It doesn't matter where a future candidate was born, as long as one of the parents was an American citizen.
   But facts and history have never interfered with ranting by virulent opponents.
   The latest act by the ranting opponents of Obama is a movement for impeachment. But so far, no specifics have been brought up.
   The Constitution specifies that a president can be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors." What are they? What are the details of the allegations?

   Impeachment is a tough case to make. It must originate in the House of Representatives, and then a trial is held in the Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (You could look it up; it's in the Constitution.)
   Impeachment has only been done twice against a President, and in neither case was there a conviction. The first to be impeached was Andrew Johnson, but conviction failed in the Senate. The second was against Bill Clinton, and that too failed in the Senate.
   The case against Andrew Johnson, a Southerner, was brought largely by Northerners who felt the President was too sympathetic to the defeated South after the Civil War.
   The case against Bill Clinton depended largely on whether he lied about his alleged sexual liaisons. Whether that qualifies as a "high crime or misdemeanor" is another issue.
   To be fair, Richard Nixon was not impeached. Articles of impeachment were approved by a House committee, but Nixon resigned before the full House could vote on them, so there was no impeachment, and consequently no Senate trial.

   Facts, of course, don't always get in the way of partisan politics.