"The only conduct that merits the drastic remedy of impeachment is that which subverts our system of government or renders the president unfit or unable to govern"
About this Quote
Ruff’s line is lawyerly restraint dressed up as constitutional gravitas. “Drastic remedy” is the tell: impeachment isn’t framed as a political tool but as emergency medicine, something you administer only when the patient (the republic) is in real danger. That phrasing quietly scolds the impeachment-hungry without ever accusing them of partisanship, a classic advocate’s move: set the bar high, then insist you’re merely defending institutions.
The specificity matters. He doesn’t say “criminal conduct,” because that would narrow the debate to statutes and courtroom standards. Instead he names two elastic, system-level thresholds: behavior that “subverts our system of government” or makes a president “unfit or unable to govern.” Those are functional tests, not moral ones. The subtext is that private vice, policy disagreement, even ugly ethics might be reprehensible yet still fall short if the machinery of governance keeps turning. It’s also a hedge: by offering two prongs, Ruff can concede wrongdoing while arguing it doesn’t rise to the constitutional crisis required for removal.
Contextually, this comes out of an era when impeachment talk surged around presidential scandal and perceived abuses of power (Ruff was a key defense lawyer in the Clinton impeachment fight). The quote is engineered to shift the audience from outrage to risk analysis. It asks: Are we correcting misconduct, or destabilizing the very order we claim to protect? That’s the rhetorical jujitsu - impeachment is redefined as a test of national self-control, not just presidential behavior.
The specificity matters. He doesn’t say “criminal conduct,” because that would narrow the debate to statutes and courtroom standards. Instead he names two elastic, system-level thresholds: behavior that “subverts our system of government” or makes a president “unfit or unable to govern.” Those are functional tests, not moral ones. The subtext is that private vice, policy disagreement, even ugly ethics might be reprehensible yet still fall short if the machinery of governance keeps turning. It’s also a hedge: by offering two prongs, Ruff can concede wrongdoing while arguing it doesn’t rise to the constitutional crisis required for removal.
Contextually, this comes out of an era when impeachment talk surged around presidential scandal and perceived abuses of power (Ruff was a key defense lawyer in the Clinton impeachment fight). The quote is engineered to shift the audience from outrage to risk analysis. It asks: Are we correcting misconduct, or destabilizing the very order we claim to protect? That’s the rhetorical jujitsu - impeachment is redefined as a test of national self-control, not just presidential behavior.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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