How could Iran-Contra have ended in impeachment?

What would need to happen for Iran-Contra to take down President Reagan and/or Vice President Bush and others? Is it possible, or is the evidence simply too circumstantial?
 
There'd need to be a "smoking gun" that clearly nails the Reagan administration to the scandal.
 
You'd have to get actual evidence out earlier, which means less time spent on Fawn Hall's bra and the like.

IOTL, by the time that most Democrats thought a case could be made to impeach Reagan, it was late enough into Reagan's second term such that the prevailing political view was that impeachment would make George H.W. Bush (the "wimp") a significantly stronger candidate in '88 if he were the sitting President. Most Democrats preferred to just let Reagan finish out his term and take a clean whack at Bush in '88.
 
You'd have to get actual evidence out earlier, which means less time spent on Fawn Hall's bra and the like.

IOTL, by the time that most Democrats thought a case could be made to impeach Reagan, it was late enough into Reagan's second term such that the prevailing political view was that impeachment would make George H.W. Bush (the "wimp") a significantly stronger candidate in '88 if he were the sitting President. Most Democrats preferred to just let Reagan finish out his term and take a clean whack at Bush in '88.


Note that if you could also tie Bush to the scandal, something many suspected but could not prove, the calculus would change. In that case, you might see the storyline emerge that ex-CIA Director Bush and his devious minions manipulated a naïve and somewhat mentally ailing Reagan into the whole mess. In that case, Reagan might skate or be allowed to resign for "health reasons" with Bush also being forced out under real threat of impeachment. With Bob Dole as his chief 1988 rival, there was a bit of overlap between the interests of Dole and the Democrats.
 
Note that if you could also tie Bush to the scandal, something many suspected but could not prove, the calculus would change. In that case, you might see the storyline emerge that ex-CIA Director Bush and his devious minions manipulated a naïve and somewhat mentally ailing Reagan into the whole mess. In that case, Reagan might skate or be allowed to resign for "health reasons" with Bush also being forced out under real threat of impeachment. With Bob Dole as his chief 1988 rival, there was a bit of overlap between the interests of Dole and the Democrats.

The thing is everyone knows that George H.W. Bush's brief tenure at the CIA was simply symbolic.

The CIA after the Watergate scandal needed a "clean face" to head the agency and Bush was considered a squeaky clean government bureaucrat.

He was hardly some superspy.
 
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