Even before the presentations at the Senate week, Alan Dershowitz had been making the rounds, drawing a straight line between maladministration and abuse of power. It is important to understand the distinction.
Madison was right to object to maladministration, saying, “so vague a term will be equivalent to a tenure during pleasure of the Senate.” Democrats thought that G. W. Bush was practicing maladministration; after the 2006 elections, in which Democrats gained both houses of Congress, they could have impeached Bush for maladministration. Republicans took control of the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014; they similarly could have impeached Obama for maladministration. If maladministration were grounds for impeachment, we would devolve into a parliamentary system, as Dershowitz correctly observes. Any President who lost the confidence of Congress would be out on her or his ear.
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