I predicted the GOP House would try to impeach if they gained control nearly 3 years ago

[stevenleser]

I think that we are going to get there with Benghazi, as ridiculous as that is. I am going to talk about that on my show tonight, but see this article from August 2010

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Election-2010-Potential-Co-by-Steven-Leser-100830-747.html
Election 2010 Potential Consequences include Impeachment of Obama

If you follow Republicans as closely and for as long as I have a number of things become apparent. The one that is the most important with regards to election 2010 is that once Republicans find a tactic that works, they stick with it until they are forced to abandon it. There are many examples of this. The election of Bill Clinton in 1992 was followed by a campaign to paint him and his major initiatives, including healthcare reform, as too liberal and out of touch with America. The Republicans reprised this "He's governing in a manner that is too Liberal" campaign against Obama. They will use it again against the next Democratic President elected no matter that President's policies. You can bet your remaining life's earnings on it.

Sometimes, Republicans get ideas from things Democrats have used against Republicans and then use them against Democrats regardless of whether these things apply. The Republicans took the frequent criticisms by Democrats of George W. Bush's inept speech-making and have tried to assert that Obama cannot make speeches without a teleprompter. Republicans, angered by the portrayal of the Tea Party as racist, tried to assert that USDA Director of Rural Development Shirley Sherrod was racist. We all saw how that worked out.

One of the things that to me seems clear is that if Republicans take back the House of Representatives in 2010, they will reuse what worked well to weaken the Clinton Presidency and prevent the election of Al Gore and that is that they will initiate impeachment proceedings against President Obama.

Republicans are not hiding the fact that they are gearing up for this. An August 27 article in Politico talks about how:
Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority. Everything from the microscopic -- the New Black Panther party -- to the massive - think bailouts -- is on the GOP to-do list, according to a half-dozen Republican aides interviewed by POLITICO... And a handful of aggressive would-be committee chairmen -- led by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) -- are quietly gearing up for a possible season of subpoenas not seen since the Clinton wars of the late 1990s.

..."How acrimonious things get really depend on how willing the administration is in accepting our findings [and] responding to our questions"
----------------
That last quote is from Kurt Bardella, spokesman for Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee. To the Politico reporters, Bardella "referred to his boss as "questioner-in-chief.'"

Tom Tancredo, the former Republican congressman from Colorado who is now running for Governor of Colorado as an independent but with much support from Republicans, is openly calling for impeachment of Obama. In an OpEd in the Washington Times, Tancredo said:
[President] Obama's refusal to live up to his own oath of office which includes the duty to defend the United States against foreign invasion requires senators and representatives to live up to their oaths. Members of Congress must defend our nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Today, that means bringing impeachment charges against Mr. Obama
------------------------------
While some mainstream Republicans attempted to distance themselves from Tancredo's remarks, the Republican blogosphere erupted with support for the effort. The base that Republicans need to support them are with them on impeachment...


More at above link

[niyad]

1. they seem to be demonstrating that they are more and more insane by the minute.

[DevonRex]

2. I agree with you wholeheartedly.

They've taken it too far to stop now. They've riled up their base. It will hurt them in the long run. Some know it but still can't stop it.

[leftyohiolib]

3. prediction: if hillary wins the 2016 election the republicans will block everything and spend their

time trying to impeach her - predicting the Gang Of Pricks is easy

[Fumesucker]

5. I'll go further, if any Democrat wins in 2016 the Republicans will block everything

And spend their time trying to impeach them.

[loyalsister]

4. It would backfire

The same way calls for W's impeachment did.

[stevenleser]

6. I disagree that it backfired. It made election 2000 close enough to steal. Without impeachment...

... election 2000 is a wipeout for Gore.

[loyalsister]

7. Is there evidence of that?

nt

[stevenleser]

11. Do you need some? I can work to put it together if you won't accept it anecdotally. nt

[loyalsister]

12. If you'll factor in all of the extraneous variables

guns, Nader, Gore invented the internet......
Remember how we picked up seat in the House after the impeachment?

[jeff47]

13. Um, no.

After Clinton's impeachment, the Republicans lost seats in Congress. Because of the impeachment. It backfired massively among the public.

It did not backfire among Democratic officials in DC, who decided the impeachment meant Gore shouldn't get too close to Clinton. And so Gore didn't.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Did not quite put it in writing

But BIL an I had the impeachment talk a week or so after the 2008 election.

It's a black democrat in office and they will do this every time a democrat gets to the WH. In republican, let me correct this, radical ones, a democrat can't be in The White House

[LeftInTX]

9. Totally agree. It's an MO

I do believe that they think the impeachment of Clinton led to the election results in Bush/Gore.

They always are rabid and angry. They have nothing of substance to offer.

[jeff47]

14. There's a rather large problem with your theory

And that's the Republicans lost seats in Congress in '98, the first election after impeachment. It was also the 6th year of a president, which usually goes very badly for the president's party.

Where it did have an effect on the 2000 election is the morons running Gore's campaign believed as you do, so they advised Gore to keep his distance from Clinton. But that terrible advise is why they are morons who should never advise a campaign again.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Oh, they are going to do it...

I'm sure. Nothing grinds government to a halt like impeachment hearings. I disagree with the president on a few things, but this shit is getting ridiculous.

[jeff47]

15. Great. Bring it on, Republicans.

Democrats need some help in 2014. Impeachment would be a great help. Just like it was in '98.

[Prophet 451]

16. I said the same at about teh same time

As far as the GOP is concerned, only Republicans have a right to the presidency and any non-GOP president is illegitimate by definition and anything is justified to remove him. David Brock explains the mindset very well in Blinded By The Right. Impeachment is their default whenever a Democrat is in the Whitehouse.