I hesitate to comment on the impeachment resolution drafted by Representative Ron Forster for fear of giving the unfortunate matter more attention than it deserves.

As reported today in AJC, Representative Forster is seeking to impeach the Lieutenant Governor. He is unhappy that the Senate referred the veto overrides to committee. He believes the Constitution required the Senate to vote on the overrides immediately after receiving them from the House and wants the Lieutenant Governor put on trial and punished for the Senate not having done so.

The Constitution does in fact require the Senate to “immediately consider” any veto overrides transmitted to it by the House. When the transmitted overrides were received, the Lieutenant Governor immediately suspended the business of the Senate and ordered the Clerk to read the override messages aloud. On motion of the Senate Majority Leader, they were referred to the Senate Rules Committee by unanimous consent of the Senate.

There is no question that the Senate action was “immediate.” As to whether the action itself properly constituted “consideration” (a word that literally means “to think about carefully”), the answer to that question can be found in the Rules of the Senate which explicitly permit the Senate to refer a veto override to committee.

Representative Forster argues that the veto override provision of the Constitution trumps the Senate Rules.  But the veto override provision cannot be read in isolation from the rest of the Constitution.  The provision dealing with veto overrides must read in conjunction with the provision of the Constitution giving each house of the General Assembly the power to adopt its own rules of procedure.

But as far as impeaching the Lieutenant Governor is concerned, it simply does not matter whether the committee referral was constitutionally correct or not. The referral was not made by the Lieutenant Governor but by unanimous consent of the Senate. Justifiably unhappy or not, Representative Forster has taken aim at the wrong target. His recourse is to run for the State Senate.

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