Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution sets out the basis for expelling a member of the House of Representatives: "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member."As one of the 110,140 people who voted in New York's 9th Congressional District race last November, I point out this passage to Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats doing their best to pressure the duly elected winner of that race, Anthony Weiner, to resign his office. The framers might not have understood the word "sexting," but they knew there would be times when a member of Congress would have to be disciplined for unbecoming conduct. If Pelosi actually believes that Weiner's misconduct reaches that point, she should seek to expel him as provided by law.The two-thirds majority the Constitution requires for expulsion indicates that the framers thought it a grave matter to undo the result of an election. In Weiner's case, he received 67,011 votes, or 60.8 percent, to the 43,129 votes cast for his opponent, Bob Turner. My sense, from talking to people, listening to the innumerable interviews being done with Weiner's constitutents, and from poll data, is that most people in the district prefer that Weiner serve out his term but would then look to vote for another candidate in 2012.If Weiner were to resign, they would go unrepresented in Congress until a special election could be held. That would probably take six months, since there are certain filing periods involved, and a primary preceding the election.Rather than try to thwart the will of the majority of the constituents in the Brooklyn-Queens congressional district, Pelosi might instead use her influence to provide them with better choices in the 2012 election. In Brooklyn and Queens, two counties where the Democratic machines control local races and judgeships, we're not used to competitive campaigns. Incumbents consider a primary a personal insult. New York state's outmoded, anti-democracy ballot access laws make it easy for the party organizations to block challengers from getting on the ballot. Maybe Pelosi can get a challenger or two on the ballot.In other words, she should follow the processes set out in the Constitution.But adhering to the Constitutional process doesn't fulfill the Democrats' political need to remove an embarrassment immediately. Perhaps the process is even intended to thwart quick judgments based on political expediency. Given the precedents, it would be difficult to justify Weiner's expulsion for his particular "disorderly Behavior." Just five House members have been expelled - three for siding with the Confederacy during the Civil War, and two for bribery.As for sexual controversies, one representative-elect from Utah was denied his seat in 1899 for the Mormon practice of plural marriage. For members of Congress, the most serious penalty the House meted out came in 1983 when it issued formal censures to two members for having sex with Congressional pages. One was re-elected, and one was not. In both cases, the will of the voters was respected.