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Sound and fury, signifying nothing

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Attempts to impeach Obama date back to 2010 when Darrell Issa considered the presumed pressure by the White House on Joe Sestak to drop out of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate Primary an impeachable offense, as the WH was actively supporting turncoat Allen Spector, who had switched parties to support the ACA.  After that effort failed to get any momentum, Michael Burgess suggested a "preemptive impeachment," citing no specific reason other than to stop the President from "pushing his agenda."

Of course, there was the ongoing row over his birth certificate as well, which many conservatives felt disqualified him from being in office in the first place, arguing that Obama wasn't a natural born citizen of the United States.  This "drive" actually began in the 2008 primaries when upset Hillary supporters attempted to derail Obama's momentum by suggesting his Hawaiian short form certificate was fake.  This story was picked up by conservative websites and swelled into a movement led by Orly Taitz that got major media attention.  The issue finally appeared to be settled in 2011, when Obama released the official Hawai'i long form certificate, after being dogged by Donald Trump among others.  But, "Birthers" still weren't satisfied, and it remained an "issue" throughout the 2012 election.

The matter of "legitimacy" still wasn't settled that November either.  Everyone remembers Karl Rove's infamous meltdown on Fox, when he insisted there were still enough unaccounted districts in Ohio to turn the vote for Romney.  Not that it really mattered since Obama had more than enough states to claim electoral victory with or without Ohio.  Many leading conservatives felt that the White House had cooked unemployment numbers, among other impeachable offenses, to gain a last minute edge over their nominee.


Efforts to make the September 11 attack in Benghazi into that year's "October Surprise" had failed, largely because Romney had greatly overstepped by being the first to rail against the President the very next morning for not declaring it a "terrorist attack" soon enough.  Ever since, the Republicans have been trying to make this into a scandal, calling one hearing after another, claiming there was a cover-up of "facts" surrounding the attack, but never once holding themselves to blame for denying additional security funding for embassies and consulates earlier that year.

In 2013, a book appeared, entitled simply Impeachable Offenses, which outlined a host of reasons why Obama should be removed from office.  One assumes Sarah Palin read the book (or at least someone prepared a punch list for her) as she claims to have 25 reasons to impeach the President, first and foremost the immigration crisis currently unfolding along the Texas border, which has Obama visiting The Lone Star state, much to Governor Perry's chagrin.

Sarah, like the growing cackle of conservative magpies, feels that the President has greatly overstepped his authority on everything from immigration to the Affordable Care Act, which is what has compelled House Speaker John Boehner to threaten a law suit against the President, while Republicans wait to see how the midterms shake out.  I suppose they imagine they can gain enough of a groundswell among dissatisfied voters to overturn the Senate this Fall, but it would take an enormous swing to get the number of Senators needed to uphold an impeachment vote by the House, as the Constitution requires a two-thirds Senate majority to confirm such a decision.  Republicans would have to win every single Senate seat up for election, and even then they would fall one vote short of a two-thirds majority.


It appears to be enough to create the air of impeachment in the midterms to try to make this election once again about Obama, rather than the incompetence displayed by Republicans these past six years, as they really have no grounds for impeachment.  Even Ted Cruz seems to realize this.  However, a simple majority would be enough for Republicans in the Senate to exercise the "nuclear option" on bills put forward by the Republican House, such as one repealing "Obamacare," which remains their favorite pet cause.

They figure if they get enough people incensed over the ongoing border crisis, they might just turn out enough Democratic senators to gain the majority.  One would like to think that Americans are inured to this type of politics, but you never can tell.


Comments

  1. TripplerJuly 15, 2014 at 9:54 PM

    More Americans died in foreign embassies under Bush than under Obama. Yet, the Democrats remain silent about it and never even attempted to make political capital as the Republicans have done. I have repeatedly pointed that out to Dems in various websites but for some reason they remain silent and passive. Small wonder why the GOP continues to score political points.

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