Benen: Repubs are putting impeachment firmly on the table

Does this remind anyone of 2006? :wtf:


http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_06/024214.php

THERE'S THAT 'I' WORD AGAIN.... Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) sure sounds excited about the midterm elections. In particular, the people Bachmann talks to really hate the president.

"<T>he thing is, here we are, people can't wait until November. They're practically lining up for polls now, they can't wait to go out and vote. The only thing is people wish Barack Obama was up for re-election right now, because they'd honestly love to have a chance to throw him out of office. Everywhere I go, people ask me, 'Michele, can we impeach the president?'"

Hmm. Everywhere Bachmann goes, people emphasize their desire to see the president impeached. Impeached for what? Bachmann didn't say, and given the deranged crowd she hangs out with, it's probably safe to assume that it doesn't much matter. (As a rule, those seeking to undo national elections might look for "high crimes," but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that those pushing the issue with Bachmann don't care if Obama has actually committed an impeachable offense or not.)

In this case, Bachmann didn't say exactly whether she supports presidential impeachment; it's just what "people" say "everywhere" she goes.

But this brings me back to a point from a couple of weeks ago -- how seriously are Republicans prepared to take this whole impeachment idea?

Obviously, President Obama hasn't committed any crimes, and there are no sane reasons for anyone to try to impeach him. But House Republicans have been known to take some stupendously crazy steps, so it's hardly unreasonable to ask now -- before the election.

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 party had no policy platform or accomplishments to point to, so this became their campaign message.)

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."

So, are Republicans prepared to also take impeachment off the table in advance of these midterm elections? Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.) has raised the specter of impeachment. So has Michele Bachmman. Fox News has, too. In February, a national poll found that a plurality of rank-and-file Republicans wants to see Obama impeached.

Is it on the table for 2011 or not? Voters should know what to expect from the next Congress. At this point, there's no reason for the GOP to avoid the question -- they're the ones who brought it up. So, what's it going to be?

—Steve Benen 4:40 PM

And I think if they don't shut the hell up the American people should storm DC in a million person march and demand that Bush and Cheney be impeached. GOD KNOWS THERE ARE ENOUGH GROUNDS.

I think Nancy Pelosi didn't want to impeach them for fear if the republicans got in they would retaliate. But it seems to me ALL THE REPUBLICANS WANT TO DO since they finally got their 80 million dollars worth by impeaching Clinton, who was 1000 times better than the POS Bush they think they will be not denied to impeach any and all Democrats that win election.

I say IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY. Show them what a real impeachment is. And throw their asses in jail.

and they usually fuck that up, too.

They don't need no stinking grounds. All they need is a total of 218 seats in the House. IF they get that, Obama WILL BE IMPEACHED!

Anybody who doesn't see that is either naive or a fool.

it doesn't have to make sense or even be real.

The Corporate M$M/RW Lie Machine will give them cover and way back in the day, the Bush-GOP was able to easily ignore the wishes of the 67% of Americans who were against the pointless impeachment - in which those who entrapped Clinton over an extra-marital affair were guilty of far more crime and collusion in setting the trap than Clinton for getting and extra-marital BJ.

Nowadays, the Corporate M$M is 10 times worse and the RW Lie Machine 10 times larger.

Simple majority is all they need. Their Propaganda Machine & Lie Laundry will do the rest.

The GOP will do its level best to make the United States ungovernable. Their fatcat benefactors need only a small portion of what Congress does to keep their edge on the rest of the population, and it's not all that difficult to get everything they want. Who really wants to delve into the minutiae of regulatory powers? But a tweak here, a fortuitous word buried deep in legislation there, and someone "earning" a few million a year suddenly gets an extra million or two, and nobody's the wiser.

With all that time freed up the GOP can turn its attention from governance to what it does best: fucking up the country for the rest of the population. Tainted food, poisoned water, failing schools and crumbling roads make money for their benefactors, and the groovy thing is that you don't have to do anything to bring about those conditions. They happen pretty much by themselves through willful neglect.

So what else is there to do? Well, keep the Democrats from exercising any oversight or restraint, and impeachment is just the thing! They impeached Clinton over nothing, and given the opportunity, they'll impeach Obama as well. They can't get a conviction, but that's not the point; tying the governing process in knots is the point.

Everybody remembers that Bill Clinton was impeached. And a lot of people can't understand why he wasn't removed from office. It's because he wasn't convicted, just indicted. An indictment is all that an impeachment is. But there seem to be a lot of people who think that impeachment and conviction are the same thing. And that's what the repukes want; to tar President Obama with the term "impeachment" forever; to have it go down in the history books with "Operation Iraqi Liberation" and "No Child Left Behind".

It's never gonna happen, just like repeal of health care reform, but it keeps the idiots worked up for the midterms.

:nuke:

Of course it worked when they had grounds. Not very good grounds...but grounds none-the-less.