Obama Impeachment Talk Heats Up

You might not be hearing a lot about it, but a whole lot of folks in America would like nothing more than to see President Barack Obama impeached and removed from office.

For what, you ask? Well, that’s not really clear. In fact, it depends on whom you talk to.

Some people, particularly on the hard right of the political spectrum, are firmly convinced Obama has done something so unconstitutional that there’s no other option than impeachment to help save the Republic. But they may not know exactly what that is.

For example, former and likely-future Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee recently said Obama has “done plenty of things worthy of impeachment,” but couldn’t actually list anything specific.

Republican Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota believes that if impeachment of Obama isn’t politically feasible, the House of Representatives should go after members of his cabinet in his place.

As part of a Republican plan to pass immigration reform, Florida Rep. Ted Yoho suggested that Republicans should “pack the bill with new border security measures and threaten to impeach Obama if he ignored them.”

You see, it doesn’t really matter what Obama may have or may not have done. He’s been elected twice, we’re in the middle of his second term, and Republicans are finding it hard to get real traction in public opinion polls against the president.

As a result, in the mind of many Republicans, Tea Party members and other right-wing true believers, it must be time to talk impeachment.

And the talk is heating up, according to Talking Points Memo:

You can see impeachment emerging as a wedge issue among Republicans. Or maybe more precisely as a litmus test, a basic measure of conservative bona fides. Right alongside opposing abortion or repealing Obamacare. No room for debate. You either are or you aren’t. Here’s Alaska’s Joe Miller challenging one of his opponents for the GOP Senate nomination on whether he supports impeachment.

Going even further, a group of fringe Tea Party and conservative activists is organizing a “National Impeach Obama Week” for later this month.

At least these activists have the ability to list the reasons why impeachment must take place, including such crimes and misdemeanors as “bald-faced lying to the American people” and “bizarre and erratic behavior, which implies psychological pathology.”

Unfortunately, it’s all very confusing for those of us who don’t spend our days seething over what the treasonous and anti-American president is doing in our name. Thankfully, the Washington Post came out with a handy visual scorecard, showing exactly where a number of national political figures stand on the question of impeaching Obama.

(Hint: the majority of the 25 or so Republicans listed have gone on record saying impeachment should at least be considered.)

As it turns out, I think the president has done a number of wildly unconstitutional things myself, such as maintaining an out-of-control surveillance state, approving the ongoing use of drones to kill civilians and bailing out the bankers instead of homeowners in response to the 2008 economic meltdown.

But I’m not really sure that impeachment is the answer. Being a “little D” democrat, I think such issues are best resolved through elections. And Obama won the last one, despite what many Republicans and conservatives wish wasn’t true.

But that isn’t going to stop them from whipping themselves into a frenzy over the possibility of impeachment.

After all, President Obama must have done something wrong. Right?