Does President Obama want to be impeached?
Well, no. But he and his political chieftains apparently want voters to think that Republicans are scheming on how to impeach him. Every failed political leader and movement need a straw man and as November approaches, liberal politicos want to paint various Republican statements and efforts to curtail Obama’s “phone and pen” strategy as a precursor to impeachment.
Last week, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters that “it would be foolish to discount the possibility that Republicans would think about going down that path.”
Pfeiffer succeeded in spinning the media. On Sunday, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, asked House Majority Whip-elect Steve Scalise whether “impeachment was off the table.”
And then Monday, again on Fox News, the lead question for Scott Brown, the Republican candidate running for Senate in New Hampshire, was about, that’s right, impeachment.
(One can only imagine the impeachment hysteria going on at MSNBC.)
Both Scalise and Brown dismissed the impeachment talk as political shenanigans by Democrats who want to take the focus off unfavorable news stories like the border crisis, more court rulings against Obamacare and failed foreign policies. They also claim it’s a fundraising ploy: There’s a reason the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has raised more than $2 million dollars online saying the GOP is out to impeach Obama.
They’re right on both counts, but the harsh reality is they still ended up talking about the “I” word.
Republicans, who may very well be on their way to controlling both the House and Senate following the November election, should not take the bait. Why blow a likely good hand for a very uncertain one? Polls show the public has no appetite for impeachment—and that the GOP is inching closer to getting the six seats it needs to win control of the Senate.
As House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday, “We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no future plans. Listen, it’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.”
I don’t think there is any doubt Obama has ignored the restraints put on the executive office by the Constitution. He’s unilaterally made changes to Obamacare without congressional approval, made recess appointments when the Senate was not in recess, and refused to enforce our immigration and drug laws, and on it goes.
An Executive Unbound: The Obama Administration’s Unilateral Actions
But whether Obama’s tendency to “go it alone” when he can’t get what he wants via Congress rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors is questionable, certainly in the eyes of the American public.
The most effective way to rein in Obama’s imperial presidency isn’t impeachment hearings. It is for voters to have their say on November 4.
