Moral Flexibility and Situational Ethics

In 1974 a young female attorney helped draw up the rules under which Richard M. Nixon would be tried by the Congress for impeachment. "Impeachment," she wrote, "did not have to be for criminal offenses - but only for a 'course of conduct' that suggested an abuse of power or a disregard for the office of the President of the United States."

She wrote, "that a person's 'course of conduct' while not particularly criminal could be of such a nature that it destroys trust, discourages allegiance, and demands action by the Congress."

She wrote that "the office of the President is such that it calls for a higher level of conduct than the average citizen in the United States."

This young female attorney who helped write the standard under which Presidents are to be judged by the House of Representatives has a unique perspective about the present situation in the White House.

You see, that female attorney who said that an unethical "course of conduct" could overthrow a president is now the First Lady,