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Go Home Obama Impeachment Watch

JONATHAN CHAIT JULY 25, 2011

Obama Impeachment Watch

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

Last year, I wrote a column predicting that Republicans will eventually impeach President Obama, should he win a second term and should the GOP maintain control of the House. Reid Epstein today collects some Republican demands to impeach Obama over the debt ceiling:

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Monday that President Barack Obama “would be impeached” if the nation falls into default.

“STOP talking about default,” he wrote on Twitter. “The 1st dime of each $1 of revenue services debt. Obama would be impeached if he blocked debt payments. C C & B!”...

Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said earlier this month it would be “an impeachable offense” for Obama to raise the debt ceiling without congressional approval. In April, former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein drafted articles of impeachment in hopes that House Republicans would introduce them.

I'd be pretty surprised if the debt ceiling leads to impeachment. Republicans ultimately have one real chance to oust Obama, and that's the 2012 elections. If he wins reelection, though, I'd look for the impeachment sentiment currently lingering around the margins to moving toward the mainstream of the party.

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18 comments

Is this what we can look forward to - everytime there's a Democratic President and a Republican House - impeachment? We didn't impeach Dubya over his war of choice in Iraq, or the general fuck-up-edness of his 2 terms in office, starting with hanging chads, and within 8 short months - a sunken Japanese school ship, EP-3 incident with China, and reading "My Pet Goat" as the towers fell, but we're going to impeach President Obama over this manufactured "crisis" What's that in the photo background? One of Obama's FEMA re-education centers?

- dubyadoubte

July 25, 2011 at 4:26pm

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Dubya - great comments, Peter. Well spoken (and witty) as always

- Tristan

July 25, 2011 at 4:30pm

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Vincent, This has me steaming. I effing dare those dour white men to impeach the nation's first African American President over this procedural bullshit. Do people forget how absolutely screwed up Dubya's 8 years were? I've seen commentators blaming the President that the shuttle program is over. Gee, at least none blew up under his watch.

- dubyadoubte

July 25, 2011 at 4:35pm

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Yep, that could be a sure thing all right. But over what? He's a happily married family man; polite to everyone; goes out of his way to make friends with his enemies and loves fast food...wait...that's it...the McDonalds manchurian candidate! Seriously, look at obesity rates since Obama got in. And I'd love to see a graph of McDonalds revenue curve over the last few years. It's well known that the fast food industry does well in times of recession. An obese nation cannot fight wars. They can only slouch to the hypnotic liberal mass media. I'd like to see how much the fast food industry donated to Obama's campaign. With a bit of luck, there'll be a cover up and he'll deny eating that burger...under oath. DNA the ketchup!

- IggyPop

July 25, 2011 at 4:40pm

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Yes, Republicans will always try to impeach a Democratic president. They will throw everything they've got at him/her, regardless of whether the functions of government, and hence the country, suffer for it.

- kluhman

July 25, 2011 at 4:40pm

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Procedural bullshit that THEY created, dubyadoubte. The hypocrisy is simply breathtaking. It's as is after a shopkeeper successfully disarmed a robber, punching him in the face in the process, the robber charges the shopkeeper with assault.

- AaronW

July 25, 2011 at 4:43pm

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I'm totally with dubya on this. We had 16 words about yellow cake which were either a half truth or a twisted lie that misled the American Public into Iraq. We had "smoking gun is a mushroom cloud." We had false Aluminum Tubes leaked to the NYT and then the story quoted by Cheney on a news channel like it was a real story. We had Valerie Plame outed. Such an abuse of power and it cost us a small fortune. And when Obama has to pay for it, it's impeachment? Uneffing believable.

- Nusholtz

July 25, 2011 at 4:44pm

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Let's see -- one wants to impeach him if the nation defaults, and one wants to impeach him if he cuts the Gordian knot so the nation _doesn't_ default. The WH is undoubtedly quaking in its boots.

- TARFON

July 25, 2011 at 4:48pm

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Oh, and Jon, I wouldn't discount the chances of this happening before the 2012 election. Two reasons: the House Repubs would have to think that impeachment would hurt Obama's reelection chances if only because it would distract him and second they may not feel that they have a lock on the House after 2012, at least not after this debt ceiling madness. Oh, and a third reason: they're crazy. Anyone who relies upon the current House Republicans to obey norms of behavior is a fool.

- AaronW

July 25, 2011 at 4:52pm

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Pete, I couldn't agree more. I enjoyed Jon's recent quote from Robert Hanlon, "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by sheer incompetence", and I've been loathe to accuse the gop of outright treason, but at this point there's ample evidence to suggest the republicans actively want to engineer at least continued economic pain if not outright economic collapse in order to regain the executive. It isn't even that far a stretch to see how they justify it to themselves... if you really believe Obama is an evil socialist bent on America's destruction, then it is perfectly ok - nay, it is your patriotic duty! - to do whatever must be done to rid washington of its occupiers. I feel like I'm watching my country slowly unraveling. This is becoming frightening.

- Tristan

July 25, 2011 at 4:55pm

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You're all loony on this one. Barring lying under oath (and first you have to have a scandal sufficient enough to compel Obama to testify), a couple of fringe Republicans won't get the House to impeach the President, now or in the next 5 years. Chait conveniently left out that Kucinich has also talked impeachment over Libya. Besides, if Republicans keep manufacturing phony debt crises and refuse to actually solve any problems, then they won't have time to impeach Obama.

- polcereal

July 25, 2011 at 5:04pm

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Unfortunately Obama will try to negotiating himself out of an impeachment - giving in to all kinds of GOP demands in the name of bipartisanship. Instead of simply ignoring the whole thing as there won't be a conviction in the Senate.

- lammersd

July 25, 2011 at 5:24pm

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polce, a less extreme Republcan House has impeached a Democratic president on charges relating to matters far more trivial than extra-legal maneuvers to avoid defaulting on the national debt. I would rule nothing out out of hand.

- AaronW

July 25, 2011 at 6:03pm

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If Obama goes to the Constitutional option, he will certainly be impeached. Impeachment only requires a majority vote in the House, and you can bet your last dollar that Cantor's loonies will cast that vote. Of course, *conviction* after impeachment requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which Ain't. Gonna. Happen. So what we end up with is another impeachment/acquittal spectacle taking up a lot of the nation's time. If we're lucky, it will convince Americans that Republicans are simply not to be entrusted with any position of responsibility... but don't hold your breath.

- Dausuul

July 25, 2011 at 6:15pm

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Amen, Dausuul. No breath-holding here.

- GSpinks

July 25, 2011 at 6:27pm

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I second your comment, Tris.

- liberalref

July 25, 2011 at 7:28pm

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I think he should fucking dare them. They'll present a plan at the last minute that's untenable to him, and they think he'll give in to avoid default. He should invoke the 14th amendment and dare them to come after him. There's nothing that will rev up the pro Obama crowd like a bunch of hypocritical assholes going after the guy who's working like a bloody martyr to solve the problems that the same hypocritical assholes created. If they impeach, even the entirely messed up mainstream media will be against the Republicans.

- NR409654

July 25, 2011 at 7:28pm

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Indeed, try to impeach the president and watch his numbers rise at home and his popularity soar abroad. Maybe that's what he's aiming at.

- ironyroad

July 25, 2011 at 7:44pm

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