Legal Commentary

The Political Benefits Of Talking Impeachment

By Big Tent Democrat

Steve Benen writes:

It's too soon to know if Republicans will re-take the House majority, but it's probably a good time to consider the consequences of a GOP majority. The obvious outcome is gridlock, with Republicans passing right-wing legislation, which would either be blocked by the Senate or vetoed at the White House. [. . .] But Jonathan Bernstein argues that we can also expect a GOP majority to at least try to impeach President Obama.

[. . .] With the base and at least one GOP lawmaker already talking about this, it seems more than fair to ask Republican candidates to go on the record on this. 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 impeachment was "off the table." [. . .] So, are Republicans prepared to also take impeachment off the table in advance of these midterm elections? There's no reason for the GOP to avoid the question -- they're the ones who brought it up.

This is good political thinking by Benen. Put the GOP in the position of having to either alienate their base or the rest of the electorate. Dems should ask the question - does the GOP want to impeach Obama?

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 28, 2010 (boomark / email).