OUSTER EFFORT NOT THE FIRST

Impeachment is nothing new to 103-year-old Cape Girardeau lawyer Rush Limbaugh.

Sixty-three years ago as a state representative, he played a leading part in efforts to oust state Treasurer Larry Brunk from office.

Gov. Henry Caulfield wanted Brunk removed from office even though both men were Republicans. "That's what made it difficult to deal with," Limbaugh recalled Thursday.

Brunk was accused of conspiring with officials from a bank in his hometown of Aurora to pocket interest from state deposits.

An audit by accountants selected by the governor discovered that the Bank of Aurora failed to account to the state for approximately $5,000 in interest on state deposits during the first two years Brunk was state treasurer.

The impeachment trial in the Missouri Senate lasted about a month. It was front-page news in Cape Girardeau.

The trial began on May 19, 1931, with the opening arguments on the part of the "six impeachment managers" from the Missouri House, the Southeast Missourian reported. The House had earlier voted to present the articles of impeachment.

Limbaugh was one of the six managers or prosecutors. An Associated Press account reported that he spent more than an hour and a half outlining the state's case against the state treasurer.

The trial ended on June 12 with a majority of senators finding the state treasurer guilty of two of nine charges. But none of the counts received the necessary two-thirds majority to force Brunk's ouster, and the embattled treasurer remained in office.

"When it was over, Brunk was greatly relieved," the Southeast Missourian newspaper reported in its June 13, 1931, edition. "His friends, many of them senators who were his colleagues when he was a senator, crowded around him shaking hands and congratulating him."

Today, Brunk's impeachment trial and the events that led up to it are confined to the pages of history and Limbaugh's memory.

Limbaugh served one term in the House, in 1931 and 1932.

He recalled that the governor at first had attempted to fire Brunk. "It caused division between those who thought the governor had exceeded his power and those who thought he should have the power."

The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the governor had no right to dismiss Brunk. The judges said such an official only could be removed from office through impeachment proceedings.

When Limbaugh arrived on the political scene in Jefferson City in 1931, the whole issue had been handed to the House.

Limbaugh urged that the House begin impeachment proceedings. He was named to a House committee to investigate the allegations against Brunk.

Limbaugh and a majority of the committee members voted to bring impeachment charges to the House floor. "It was not unanimous. I remember at least two of them were not for the report," he said.

The full House voted to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, where the case was tried. "It is the longest trial I have ever engaged in as a lawyer," Limbaugh recalled.

Although the impeachment effort ultimately failed, Limbaugh never wavered in his view that the treasurer should have been ousted. "I had convictions at the beginning that he acted wrongly."