For Democrats, It’s Impeachment 24/7

by William Teach | July 31, 2014 8:03 am

Here are a few points from the Republicans articles of Impeachment for Obama

• Article XXIV: Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment
• Article XXVI: Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements
• Article XXVII Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply
• Article XXVIII: Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Seems rather ominous, eh?

Anyhow, here’s Nate Silver[1] on the subject

House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday[2] that Republicans have no plans to impeach President Obama, and that all the impeachment talk was driven by Democrats hoping to stir up their base.

Boehner’s statement isn’t literally true: There have been mentions of impeachment around the edges of the GOP and by some Republican members of Congress.[3] But on the whole, Democrats are spending a lot more time talking about impeachment than Republicans.

Consider, for example, the Sunlight Foundation’s Capitol Words database, which tracks words spoken in the House and Senate. So far in July, there have been 10 mentions[4] of the term “impeachment” in Congress and four others[5] of the term “impeach.” Eleven of the 14 mentions have been made by Democratic rather than Republican members of Congress, however.

Impeachment chatter has also become common on cable news. On Fox News this month, Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, called for Obama’s impeachment[6], for instance. But for every mention of impeachment on Fox News in July, there have been five on liberal-leaning MSNBC.

All in all, it has been Democrats who have the ones mostly discussing impeachment. There was a brief flurry of blog posts from Conservatives immediately after Sarah Palin brought the issue to the forefront with two[7] Facebook[8] posts. Democrats have been fundraising (successfully) like crazy off the notion. Liberal media types have been running rampant with opinion pieces. The Washington Post has two breathless op-eds by Dana Milbank[9] and E.J. Dionne[10] running on their web front page this morning. The Hill[11] also noticed that Democrats just can’t stop talking about impeachment. Even the White House[12] is pushing the meme.

Let’s ask the relevant question: if it was a Republican president acting in such a lawless manner, would high ranking Democrats be pushing for actual impeachment proceedings? They never would have considered this, right?

(Daily Caller[13]) In a speech on the floor of the House Wednesday, Texas U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee claimed that Democrats never sought to impeach President George W. Bush.

Not only is that claim false, but Jackson-Lee actually co-sponsored a 2008 bill to do just that and spoke in at least one House committee hearing in support of the effort.

In 2008, former Ohio U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a prominent opponent of the Iraq war, introduced a bill titled ”Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Jackson Lee and 10 other Democrats co-sponsored it.

Hmph. Say, remember when John Conyers held his little fake impeachment trial[14] in the Capital basement? Twice[15]? And all the left wing groups, such as After Downing Street, World Can’t Wait, and so many others, that pushed impeaching Bush? Oh, and then there’s this, which the Daily Caller forgot to mention

(Democrats.com[16]) By a bipartisan vote of 251-166[17], the full House of Representatives sent Dennis Kucinich’s 35 Articles of Impeachment[18] to the Judiciary Committee.

That means Chairman John Conyers[19] now has the power to decide whether to hold impeachment hearings – or not.

Those points at the beginning of the post come directly from Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment named in the above excerpt.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove[20]. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach[21].