Here is the ultimate impeachment game: If you cannot control how senators vote, control how many senators are allowed to vote.
That is the danger of a “flexible denominator.”
A senator can be neutralized without changing his or her position. File cases. Threaten investigations. Harass relatives. Intimidate staff. Prevent transportation. Create disturbances. Anything that keeps a senator away from the voting floor can potentially become politically consequential.
Then comes the mathematical magic: fewer senators participating may mean fewer votes required if the denominator is allowed to shrink.
Suddenly, absence becomes a weapon.This is why the constitutional phrase “two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate” matters. The denominator is not supposed to be a moving target.
Otherwise, an impeachment trial could be transformed into a bizarre contest: Don’t persuade the senators.Don’t win the argument. Just make enough senators disappear and let the arithmetic do the rest.
That is not constitutional accountability.That is the “Bendalo” logic of manufacturing an outcome by manipulating the denominator.
(John Raña)
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