The news hit today that the word “impeachment” was uttered in a Congressional hearing room. Gasp!
Georgetown law professor Nicholas Rosenkranz was being questioned about Pres. Obama usurping lawmaking powers. What can be done about it? he was asked. The congressman did not want to utter the obvious word, but Prof. Rosenkranz went ahead and said it:
“The ultimate check on presidential lawlessness is elections and, in extreme cases, impeachment.”
And the shock waves are still reverberating.
But I found comments by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte to miss the mark. He said, “To me, the Senate being complicit in watching the executive branch strip the powers of the Congress is absolutely despicable.” Well, maybe so, but what I find more despicable is the complicity of Congressional Republicans. By their timidity and inaction, they are fostering this atmosphere of “We dare not criticize the President.”
Goodlatte went on: “One of the biggest frustrations: Senate Democrats don’t seem to give a rip.” Chairman Goodlatte, you know what is a bigger frustration for me? Too many House and Senate Republicans don’t seem to give a rip. Just one example: We had the courts slap down Obama for appointing members of the National Labor Relations Board without Senate consent. Republicans, rather than make him eat it, gave him a couple of alternate nominees as part of a deal.
I hear people saying that impeachment is futile – the Senate would never vote to convict. I want to pull my hair out when I hear stuff like that. Republicans have the power to impeach him. Impeachment just takes a vote by the House. Even if he isn’t convicted, he would have that asterisk by his name: Barack Obama – impeached. And the American people deserve to have it made perfectly clear that he has been operating outside his legitimate role. Otherwise, there is an open invitation for any of his successors to do the same and even try to push the envelope a little further.
Clinton was impeached and should have been convicted for obstruction of justice and other related charges. He lost his law license over it. But Obama has repeatedly committed high crimes worthy of impeachment. Besides the litany of usurpations, I would add to the charges his defrauding the American people with his lies about Obamacare. If the government were a private corporation and he had similarly deceived the stockholders in order to influence a major policy decision, he’d be wearing an orange jumpsuit right now.
Republicans, you also took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. And it is your Constitutional duty to implement the enforcement provision given you for handling an imperial president.
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