# So  suppose Dick Cheney's impeached - does he preside over his own Senate trial?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-suppose-dick-cheneys-impeached-does-he-preside-over-his-own-senate-trial/320322>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 6, 2005, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-suppose-dick-cheneys-impeached-does-he-preside-over-his-own-senate-trial/320322 "2005-09-06T11:26:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-suppose-dick-cheneys-impeached-does-he-preside-over-his-own-senate-trial/320322/21 "2005-09-07T16:28:14Z")

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Ah, that’s entirely true. Sorry for the mistake.

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**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-suppose-dick-cheneys-impeached-does-he-preside-over-his-own-senate-trial/320322/22 "2005-09-07T17:51:19Z")

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> [@Cunctator](#):
>
> Wouldn’t all the usual natural justice/procedural fairness strictures apply: the rule against against bias and the requirement that nobody can be the judge in his own cause (_nemo judex in sua causa esse debet_)?

The process is an entirely political one, merely dressed in some trappings of the legal system but not part of it. The law does not apply, neither does precedent, and fairness (procedural or otherwise) is in the eye of the beholder.

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-suppose-dick-cheneys-impeached-does-he-preside-over-his-own-senate-trial/320322/23 "2005-09-07T18:41:03Z")

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> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> Sure Gerry said it, as part of the Republican witchhunt against Justice William Douglas. But almost immediately after (in political terms) Watergate happened. That the words of the Speaker of the House could be construed as saying that Nixon could be gotten rid of for any convenient reason, when the White House was calling the whole affair a third-rate robbery, was enormously embarrassing to everybody. Even the Democrats - who liked Gerry far more than they did The Evil Dick - didn’t bring up that quote again. It didn’t really surface until Clinton’s impeachment loomed and it became almost frighteningly relevant once more.

I found four references to it in the the Los Angeles Times from 1973 to 1974. Two were op-ed pieces from “TRB” of the New Republic. Not sure who was writing that column back then. Another was a commentary by Michael Les Benedict.

One of the TRB pieces quotes William Saxbe as saying that “The House can indict a man if they don’t like the color of his necktie.”

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