You all read Steve Benen anyway, but in case you missed this, there’s an item today on the two Washington Times editorials calling for the impeachment of Obama.
Also too, at FrumForum, there is a call for Republicans to forswear impeachment.
I’m less and less sure that Boehner has the balls to pull the trigger on impeachment proceedings, but more and more sure that “the Tea Party caucus” will try to force him to.
c u n d gulag
Of course they’ll impeach.
They have no plan, no ideas.
Nothing.
When you have nothing, what do you do?
Repeal and impeach.
It keeps the people from realizing you have nothing, and it makes the DC cocktail cirquit dizzy with glee.
I can see Broder now, drooling in his cream of wheat, writing about how it’ll take a bipartisan effort to impeach the Kenyan Outsider.
Bet on it!
Zandar
Orange Julius would do this in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it.
Damn right they will.
Kryptik
You know, because this stuff is more important than trying to get the economy on track.
The most depressing thing is just how inevitable this seems to be.
fasteddie9318
I’m sure our intrepid and dogged Washington media will pursue Boehner relentlessly, from tanning bed to tanning bed if that’s what it takes, insisting that he definitively say whether impeachment is or is not on the table should the GOP take the House. They won’t let this story go until they force the GOP leadership to explain to the American people exactly what they have planned for the next session of Congress.
What? Did I say something funny?
r€nato
In other news, Daniel Schorr is dead but this piece of shit is still ambulatory.
NR
Clearly, Obama can solve this with more bipartisanship.
Tom Hilton
Agreed, and agreed.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Of course they will. I mean look at the guy. He must be guilty of something.
Violet
@fasteddie9318:
Bwahahaha. The media is our modern version of sycophantic courtiers of old. Useless hangers on, all wanting to be near power in hopes it rubs off on them.
Tonal Crow
@NR: Ya. Maybe he’ll begin by saying, “Some people say that I am a Kenyan citizen and a communist. While I disagree with them, I understand their concerns. So let me be clear: I am willing to meet them more than halfway, and to arrive at a bipartisan solution to this problem….”
And no, I did *not* say that Obama is worse than Bush. He’s a lot better than that on most issues. But his rhetoric BITES LIKE A STARVING VAMPIRE.
demimondian
@kommrade reproductive vigor: At the very least, he’s guilty of breathing while black.
Zandar
Somewhere in the RNC secret basement underneath Michael Steele’s ego is a cardboard standee of Obama with “THE USURPER” on it.
They’re just waiting to use it.
Hunter Gathers
If Boehner says yes, all hell will break loose (maybe, if Beitbart comes up with another video smear by then)
If Boehner says no, he will never hold a leadership position in the GOP ever again.
Quite a tight spot, if you ask me. I think it’s coin flip.
Corner Stone
@Tonal Crow:
I think you meant:
Hunter Gathers
@Zandar: It’s not a basement. It’s an underground bunker containing the Large Wingularity Collider. They are hoping to be the first to find the Higgs Boson, so they can harness the power of particle physics to re-animate Ronald Reagan.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@demimondian: Well duh! And I bet he drives a nice car. Where’d he get the money for that? The American people need answers!
asdf
Please allow me to quote Mr. Benen,
“Remember, throughout 2006, when Republicans realized that Democrats had a very good shot at reclaiming the congressional majority, one of the single most common GOP attacks before the elections was that Dems would try to impeach Bush and/or Cheney if they were in the majority.
The talk was so common that Democratic leaders, much to the chagrin for the party’s base, declared unequivocally before the election that presidential impeachment was ‘off the table.'”
This.
Davis X. Machina
It’s Speaker Boehner or out. He won’t be Minority Leader again. The crazies won’t take him back if he can’t deliver the House. So he’s got to calculate whether running with the fox or hunting with the hounds gets him closer to the magic 218.
Mike
You’ve already conceded losing the house?
Tonal Crow
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Clearly he’s a young buck buying T-bone steaks with welfare dollars!
El Cid
I don’t see how a Republican Congress would need “balls” to start impeachment proceedings. They simply lack any degree of hypocrisy, decency, irony, or honesty. They’ll do it just for the hell.
blahblahblah
These people are simply the disloyal opposition:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/gop-rep-and-tn-gov-candidate-wamp-states-might-have-to-consider-separation-from-this-government.php?ref=fpa
Why do Democrats bother trying to playing ball with folks who hold knives at their throats? No society can sustain this level of hatred and division. The conservatives and corporate plutocrats control the media and government apparatus and they will win this time.
May God help this planet.
Bill
Impeachment is not only to prevent any action on things that matter, it’s a good diversion while they continue and probably try to increase “corporate welfare.”
Third Eye Open
When do we get to start the process of herding these reprobates into FEMA
deathre-educationhappy-camps? For all the money that Soros spends on bringing about the end of the world, I would have thought that he would have already been on top of this shite.Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@r€nato: Wait a minute!!!!!!!!!! Have we found the one guy Limpballs is afraid of? Why is Rushbot so afraid of Shep Smith that he can’t say his name?
fasteddie9318
@asdf:
So what is needed, then, is for Democrats to make impeachment an issue in the midterms. No problem. With the tough, gutty, hardball style of campaigning for which the Democratic Party is well-known, I’m sure they’ll force an answer out of Boehner on this issue.
What now? Why do I keep hearing people snickering everytime I write something?
Cacti
So, what are the grounds for impeachment, other than Presidentin’ while black?
CalD
I tend to doubt that Mr. Boehner will ever get the chance to find out if he has the stones for an impeachment attempt or not. Actually wouldn’t surprise me to see him gone after the next congress is seated.
gocart mozart
He is only 3/5th of a President. This is an impeachable offense under the Tea Bag Konstitution.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Cacti: Presidentin’ while black and DemocRAT!
joe from Lowell
There will be no impeachment, because the Democrats are not going to lose the House.
Bnut
OT, but the commenters on FrumForum seem to be the last vestige of sane conservatives on the planet. From what I can glean, they seem to despise Rethugs just as much as alot of us. Or maybe it’s all liberal plants.
gocart mozart
@Cacti:
Also presidentin’ while a Democrat also.
scav
@blahblahblah: Yeah, but can’t you just see their new spanking new country with the Bill of Rights (Own Guns, Merry Chistmas) and Bill of Privileges (Health Care, Voting). . .
Dave
What would the grounds be for an impeachment? With Clinton, the hook was a thin one (lying about oral sex to a federal grand jury) but it was enough.
What could the grounds possibly be for Obama other than he’s too black? Unless they really want to pursue the whole “is he Kenyan?” bullshit.
gocart mozart
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Damn You Kommrade!
Tonal Crow
@Cacti: Ain’t that more than enough? (/wingnut)
fasteddie9318
@Dave:
Lewinsky started out as an investigation into the ethics of a land deal on which the Clintons lost money. All you need is the flimsiest of reasons to start poking into every nook and cranny, and eventually you’ll find something that can be blown out of proportion into a cause for impeachment.
Kryptik
@Bnut:
They’re as good as, to the party. Sane Republican just means ‘Liberal in Disguise’ to the folk in charge.
Tonal Crow
@Dave: Oh, I don’t know, perhaps “Exercisin’ the power of the Commerce Clause to regulate bidness, when it was clearly intended to prevent hippies from growin’ pot in their backyards”.
Davis X. Machina
@joe from Lowell: I know that, and you know that, but what are the chances that it’s an article of faith in the House GOP caucus that promising an impeachment is just the ticket to deliver a majority? Every newspaper they read tells them that they’re ahead in the generic solely on the basis of voter intensity.
There are still plenty of veterans in the caucus of the Great Fellatio Death Ride of ’98 — are they once-burnt, twice shy voices of caution, or do they want to relive the glory days of their youth?
David Hunt
@Cacti:
Presidentin’ while a Democrat. Or as the Republicans translate that, “treason.”
Cacti
@blahblahblah:
I encourage Tennessee to give secession another try. The moment they do, pass legislation designating it an enemy nation, forbidding trade with it, and banning the use of US roads, rails, airspace, and inland waterways for trade or travel to Tennessee.
Then we can check back in a year and offer repatriation to Tennesseans on the condition that they cede the eastern half of the state back to the cherokee.
Craig
You people are fucking stupid. Anyone with half a brain knows exactly why Obama needs to be impeached.
Montysano
@r€nato:
Well fuck….. But, he was 93 and still relevant. Not a bad run.
Frank
Based on what happened in 1998/1999, I would welcome impeachment proceedings from the GOP. It would most likely mean a landslide victory for Obama in 2012. I doubt the average unemployed person would salute this tactic from the GOP.
By the way, our country is currently involved in two wars. We were taught by the GOP during the Bush era that at a time of war we should never disagree with the President or we would be called traitors. So, if the GOP calls for impeachment, I take it that all the Republicans will refers to themselves as traitors?
scav
Excuse, OT rant, but I’m getting seriously peeved at the ChiTribs headline of LOOMING thunderstorms when there’s not a cloud on the radar until midstate. Yeah, there’ll be storms but Deity on a Ritz, can somebody look up the meaning of loom in that loony bin? Save it for a thrilling update ! ! ! later in the day!
El Cid
All these neo-Confederates who want secession, fuck if they deserve an entire god-damned state any way.
They want to get away? Let’s negotiate them to have some fucking badland in western Texas or whatever the hell, because there won’t be that many of them (despite their loud, flapping big talking mouths) and they all pretend to be back-to-the-land tough survivalists.
Anywhere, but fuck if these bastards get to claim a whole damn state.
scav
@El Cid: might be cheap at the price.
burnspbesq
@Cacti:
You think that’s insufficient?
El Cid
I think the standards for impeachment are having enough votes to do it.
Tonal Crow
@El Cid: As I’ve recommended before, wrap them tightly in pink burkas, sketch 76 different insults to Mohammed on each one, give each a bottle of coke, a can of Cheez Whiz and a revolver with 5 bullets, and airdrop them into South Waziristan. Shorter: put all the nutty dominionists in one place and let them fight it out.
Midnight Marauder
In what world is this a real thing?
You think this guy won’t have his sights set on impeachment hearings?! Hell, he is already planning his first months in office as Speaker most likely!
Stop affording these people the luxury of sane, rational thought, and start realizing that there are literally no limits to their hubris and cynicism.
Elisabeth
@fasteddie9318:
Tony Rezko, perhaps. I’m sure someone somewhere still has a file on that deal.
K. Grant
@Tonal Crow:
Perhaps. It may not be what some might want, but this particular President is a rather cagey lot – I would argue, not without reason. Notably, the moment he actually verbally flays someone on the right is the moment his presidency is really and truly over, as he will castigated as the ‘angry black man’ every moment of every day.
Nope, its not fair, and it feels crappy to cede the ground without a fight, but I think the President simply will not give them that gift that they want so badly. And they do, the right wing freaks want Obama to absolutely unload so that they can use that image and sound-bite every second of every day for however long he can hang on to the office – it would be Rev. Wright times one million.
gocart mozart
@Craig:
Good point.
GregB
The claims by Limbaugh and Beck that Obama orchestrated the Sharrod Smear suffers from one critical flaw.
Breitbart won’t release the source of the smear tape.
burnspbesq
I think Andrew wins the intertubes for today, with his characterization of Politico as the “amoral pageview machine.” Wish I’d written that.
gocart mozart
@Elisabeth:
In other words, they will make some shit up?
Tom Hilton
@GregB: so clearly Breitbart is part of it, and his source is really Obama.
The Dangerman
Impeach the first African American President? Yeah, right; not gonna happen (unless the Constitution is changed to somehow place Palin in charge, but that isn’t the way it works).
Now, 2nd Amendment remedies is an entirely different matter (mostly because the GOP is not taking the House). I’m not saying the target would be Obama (hiya Secret Service), but I AM saying that arming oneself is a pretty good idea. These fuckers ARE that crazy.
maya
With Impeachment in the air I’m wondering if Chief Justice Roberts has decided on what robe on what character from which Gilbert & Sullivan operetta he will wear.
El Cid
@Tom Hilton: The original was where the “Whitey” tape was hidden.
Sly
Tom Tancredo’s reasons are compelling.
Apparently, he has the inside scoop on Mexico’s invasion plan, which it entails dressing up the Mexican Army in civilian clothes and sending them across the border to take our jerbs. And here I thought that President Calderon looked so gracious when he had his state visit.
But the man got five whole five votes in the Iowa Republican Caucus, so he must be on to something.
Sly
@maya:
Roberts should probably worry about getting the statement calling the Senate to order right. Just sayin’.
Zifnab
While I’ve got no doubt that Republicans will turn the House into Impeachment Circus the moment they get the chance, exactly what is this going to do to a reelection bid in ’12? I don’t know what another two years of economic shit is going to do to us, but I can’t help imagining a repeat of the ’94 Gingrich Congress won’t do the Republican Party any favors. There’s a reason President Dole isn’t in the history books.
Gore’s biggest mistake was walking away from Clinton in the ’00 election. People loved Bill Clinton, blowjobs be damned. If Obama lives up to the Clinton legacy, the Republicans will line themselves up for the slaughter in ’12.
cb
so pre-emptive war hardly warrants the bat of an eyelash, yet fairly mainstream actions taken to halt a recession warrants impeachment.
sounds about right. if youre a crazy person.
mclaren
This all depends on whether the Repubs recapture control of the House. If so, they’ll obviously impeach, because what’s the downside? Their popularity is already at 20% outside wingnutopia, and inside the deep red states, impeachment is hugely popular, along with global warming denial and evolution denial.
But recapture of the House is no by means certain. They might manage, or they might not. It depends on how badly the economy craters when the stimulus runs out, which it’s scheduled to do this fall. If we get a double-dip recession prior to November 2010, the Repubs could well take the House. If instead of a double-dip recession we get a slow grinding Japanese-style “lost decade,” then things might not be bad enough economicaly this November for the Repubs to recapture the House.
In that case, the question becomes: what will Republicans do with an increased margin in the House and senate, but not a majority in either chamber?
Calls for investigations, probably. They’ll try to take the birther crap to the newspapers instead of investigating it in committees in the house. Look for our spineless gullible mainstream media to play along with eager credulity — the WaPo is sure to discover that there’s “real substance in the birther concerns” when the Repubs make substantial gains this November.
Either direct investigations or filling the mainstream (maimstream?) media with this crap is equally good from the Repubs’ point of view, since their goal is to distract everyone from the real issues and shut government down with manufactured pseudo-scandals.
TX Expat
@Tonal Crow:
I see what you did there.
Gonzales v. Raich, Scalia opinion btw, bitches!
Tonal Crow
@K. Grant: The GOP will flay Obama no matter what he does, as this very thread’s topic illustrates. Also, I did not say that he should “absolutely unload” on the rightists. Rather, he should call a spade a spade. In particular, he should use strong, clear terms like “lie” when justified instead of pussyfooting around the fact that the GOP lie like dogs on an August afternoon in Baton Rouge. He should make it clear that the Senate usually should — and usually did, until now — operate by majority vote (“upperdown vote!”) and that, contrary to what GOPers say, the rules do NOT require “60 votes” to pass legislation. No, it’s “60 votes” only because the GOP are filibustering. And so on.
It’s a matter of rallying the public to his side by being strong and clear.
Tonal Crow
@Tonal Crow: Ach! Moderation! I guess it must have been the term “p**syfooting” that done it.
Elisabeth
@gocart mozart:
When you find something you’re good at…
And the Republicans are good at making shit up.
MikeJ
@NR:
The best course for Obama is to appear to be sane and yes, bipartisan. It makes the teabaggers look crazy to the masses that don’t pay any attention at all.Sadly, those stupid people get to vote.
Cain
Let them do it. Let’s see how people react when congress doesn’t do a damn thing to help them economically but instead worry about whether Obama was an american or not and spend a shitload of money on that with a special prosecutor etc etc etc pouring through everything.
While the U.S. sinks deeper, we’ll just investigate harder. They can kiss all the minoriities goodbye, the black vote, the middle class vote, the only vote left will be wingnuts, rich people and big businesses. After the U.S. crumbles, the big businesses will move on to something else.
We can only blame our fellow countryman if that happens.
cain
Tim H
Unemployment
Change this or nothing else matters.
Triassic Sands
If Frum were sane or even just minimally responsible, he wouldn’t give Republicans advice that might help them at the polls, because he wouldn’t want them to win — since they are insane and irresponsible.
Comrade Darkness
@Dave: I was going to bet that the first round would be impeaching Obama for the TARP bailout Bush passed. After being informed of their dipshit mistake they would state that it didn’t matter since candidate Obama would have signed the bailout, had he been president instead of Bush, so it still counted. Then they would scream something about whether CNN checked if Michelle was really his wife, Vitter would excuse himself for a quick diaper change, and they would happily go about voting.
scav
@scav: NOW we have loom, you loons. cue the scary music and drop with relief in the chilly downdrafts.
WereBear
Yeah, (sigh.) They know how powerfully that would strum certain fears.
Fortunately, by temperament and intellect, the Main Dude knows that, too.
At least so far, his chief weapons are: sarcasm, a ruthless efficiency, and a fanatical devotion to a lack of fanaticism.
Comrade Darkness
@scav: Chilly? It was nice and cool here in our woods’ neck this morning until the storms pounded. Now they are over it’s like Bombay between monsoons and almost unlivable.
Emma
Blahblahblah: May God help this planet? No. May God help this country. The planet will go on its merry way as yet another empire dies.
Kobie
@Bnut: I’ve had wingnuts on another board I go to essentially say that Frum himself is a liberal plant.
Yutsano
@Kobie: Well in their defense, he is Canuckistani…
danimal
They’ll impeach if they get the chance. The GOP is nothing if they’re not full of hubris. Any success they have this year will encourage them to ramp up teh craaazy and set them up for the mother of all disasters in 2012. We should start making our legislative wish lists now, because that will be the year the GOP crashes and burns.
slag
Shouldn’t we all be sending Nancy Pelosi our entire paychecks by now?
WereBear
@slag: What? You’re not?
angler
This is one of many reasons why the Repub will not have a majority in either house in 2011-12. Sure they would do it but they won’t have the power to set the agenda. The 2012 elections are a long way off, but this ain’t happening in 2010. Unless, unless . . . . Hamschultzwaldgold strikes!
Woodrowfan
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
I was told that in 2008. “of course he has something to hide, he’s black.”
scav
@Comrade Darkness: well, luckily, our storms came late in day so we’ll get to keep the coolth whereas you got stuck with the humidity prior to Mr. ExcessiveSunBall. sorry ’bout those cookie crumbs.
Comrade Darkness
@scav: Hopefully that’s true for you. This humidity was so intense it was making us dizzy.
Slocum
Why should they forswear impeachment? What if he held people in a military-run camp with little or no hope of due process? WHAT THEN?!?
Bill H
No. I don’t read Steve Benen any more because he ran out of anything to say other than how bad the Republicans are. I know that and don’t disagree with it, but the refrain became tiresome.
Nick
@Tonal Crow: I distinctly remember this happening;
and liberals ripping him to shreds for “giving Fox News relevancy”
What we’ve all learned from the past year and a half is if you’re doing something with the intent on pleasing the so-called “base”…don’t because you’ll have an easier time getting a Southern Baptist preacher to marry a gay couple.
Karen
@Cain:
You’re assuming they won’t overturn the Civil Rights Act. Once they get rid of the rights of anyone but White Christian Males, minorities of any type won’t be able to vote, end of problem.
sacman701
The Republicans won’t try to impeach Obama if they (ugh) win the house. Boehner is dumb and cynical, but he remembers that when they tried to impeach Clinton, all they did was drive his numbers up. Clinton had actually lied under oath (albeit about something inconsequential) whereas they have absolutely nothing on Obama.
The congressional GOP has a large minority of stone cold lunatics, but the dominant force is still cynical bastards (Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, Kyl) who care about nothing but winning elections and at least understand politics enough to know that if they try to impeach Clinton, the 2012 general election will probably make 1964 look like a nail-biter.
slightly_peeved
Actually, I don’t think this is true anymore. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
Look at the recent special elections and the primary winners. Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Rubio, Hoffman. The Republicans are nominating idiots who are either losing winnable elections or nearly losing the unlosable ones. Their support of the immigration laws in Arizona have drastically reduced the GOP’s hope of appealing to anyone other than old white people.
The long-term good news is that the clock is ticking for the GOP. The demographics are getting worse for them every year, as more of their supporters die out. And in 2014, universal healthcare kicks in, and repealing universal healthcare is political suicide in every country in the world. The current leadership of the GOP seems to have done nothing to try and defuse any of these timebombs. It’ll be bad for the Democrats if the Republicans win the House this year, but it’ll be disastrous for the Republicans if they don’t.
Wilson Heath
This probably explains the urge to impeach as well as the fear to do so.
Xanthippas
I don’t read Steve Benen, mostly because of his hyper-focus on the latest fauxrage and his tendency to view everything in purely partisan terms. You know, like another blogger I’m thinking of…