Despite the white-hot controversy that has engulfed Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley over allegations that he used state resources to conceal an affair with one his top aides, Bentley's fellow Republicans in the legislature are moving to protect him from possible impeachment. Eleven lawmakers had already signed articles of impeachment introduced by GOP state Rep. Ed Henry, but on Tuesday, the state House adopted new rules that would require 21 legislators to sign on before any impeachment proposal would be presented to the chamber's Judiciary Committee. Henry accused the House of wanting to "stall, and prolong and eventually prevent the impeachment" of Bentley, but the questions remains, why?
Nothing we've come across has really provided much of an explanation, though we can offer a few theories. It's possible Republicans don't want to see Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, whose competence has been under attack for years, ever since she presided over the collapse of the state's Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program during her tenure as state treasurer. And why give her a leg up on winning a full term, when Bentley is barred by term limits from running again, and the next election is in just two years?
It's also not as though the governorship is a great prize in Alabama, since gubernatorial vetoes can be over-ridden by a simple majority. What's more, this is the same bunch of Republicans who voted to give Mike Hubbard another term as House Speaker even after he was indicted on 23 counts of felony corruption in 2014. But perhaps the truest reasoning comes not from a Republican but from a Democrat, state Rep. Alvin Holmes, who announced on the House floor his opposition to impeachment, saying that he could name a dozen fellow lawmakers who were married but carried on affairs. Declared Holmes, "There's no law against having a girlfriend."
Actually, that's not true: Adultery is still a misdemeanor in Alabama. Apparently, though, legislators don't want to set any sort of precedent that it could also be an impeachable offense.