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Presidential impeachment

By Jim Killebrew

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[July 29, 2014]  The Congress was proceeding toward impeachment for President Nixon for the low-level operatives breaking into the democrat office at Watergate to steal the democrat's plans for the election cycle. The ensuing cover-up and loss of several minutes of White House taped conversation sent the Congress and the American people over the edge. The result of course was Nixon's resignation.

By comparison this President has to his credit fast and furious gun running; enacting the immigration "Dream Act" by Presidential fiat; the entire Benghazi issue that resulted in an American Ambassador and three other Americans being murdered while the President and his Administration spun lies about a video being the cause when they knew better; The Department of Defense targeting journalists for investigations; the National Security Administration collecting meta data on all Americans and leaders in allied countries; the Internal Revenue Service targeting perceived enemies of the Administration for extended reviews regarding tax-exempt status; stonewalling Congressional investigations with cover-ups and refusals to hand over information regarding the investigations; the Administration's Attorney General being cited for Contempt of Congress for failure to cooperate in investigations and then given protection through Executive privilege by the President; the scandalous deaths of forty veterans being put on secret waiting lists in the Veterans Administration Hospitals; the President releasing known terrorist from GITMO back into a situation where they can rejoin fighting terrorist groups putting Americans in danger; withdrawing American troops from war theaters where terrorists continue to be active in their attempts to kill Americans; and finally, the current issue in the Middle East where Iraq is being overrun by terrorists again and the President projecting to the world he intends to establish the exact same conditions in the Afghanistan war theater by giving the enemy advance notice of his intentions to withdraw fighting forces by the end of the year. One would think that with all of this someone in the Congress would be at least thinking about impeachment the way they did for Nixon and Clinton.

Prominent republicans like Sarah Palin did call for the President’s impeachment. But the Speaker of the House, John Boehner said he “disagrees” with Ms. Palin and refuses to entertain the motion for impeachment. Of course the Speaker knows it is a futile endeavor since the republicans were dealt a negative hand in the impeachment of Bill Clinton for his having lied to Congress. In that instance, as most Americans may remember, the House of Representatives proceeded with the impeachment, but the Senate failed to support that move. The House republicans paid for that move dearly by losing face and elections. Speaker Boehner knows that same thing would happen again this time around, even with the President having lost support by more than 60 percent of the people.

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Oddly enough, the people who are calling for the impeachment of the President are members of his own party. At least they are holding up the profile for the argument in a higher stance. The reason: The democrats have used this ploy as a fundraiser to fight against the “straw man” of impeachment and hold the republicans up as disrupters to strengthen the charge that republicans are the major cause of the foils plaguing the President’s Administration with so many “phony scandals.” The truth is, each of the leaders of both parties realize the American people really have no stomach for impeaching the President unless there is a clear-cut “smoking gun” of treason or “high crimes.” When the democrats won the Congress majority in 2006 they entertained the notion of impeaching President Bush. At that time, Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House, flatly said “impeachment is off the table.”

No, the President will not be impeached simply because the House of Representatives will not commence the process knowing they will be crucified in the next two elections. Even the democrats who may want to have it rise up as an issue now to cloud the issues to at least collect money for the party, they really don’t want it for the future 2016 Presidential election. So, the President can feel fairly safe for now, dodging the impeachment bullet. He may not be as safely ensconced in the position of dodging the Supreme Court if he continues to try to circumvent the work of Congress with his “pen and phone.”

[By JIM KILLEBREW]

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