And So It Begins

First Newt Gingrich and now Trent Franks (R-AZ) have stated in public that they think Barack Obama's decision to stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court is an impeachable offense. Never mind that this is perhaps the single most absurd claim anyone has ever made. If Obama were planning on ceasing to enforce the law before it was even struck down, then you could construct an argument that this was a breach of the responsibility to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Even in that case, though, there have been lots of people through history who argued that the President may stop enforcing a law he thinks is unconstitutional. These people tend to be advocates of executive power, which is something that has by and large been a right-wing thing of late (although it does vary by who the executive is at any given time). The Eisenhower Justice Department filed an amicus brief in Brown expressing support for the plaintiffs (a.k.a. the good side). It's routine for the current Administration to argue in court that a law is unconstitutional. Hell, Bush routinely just refused to implement a law he didn't like, and Republicans loved it. The idea that this is an impeachable offense is just ridiculous.

But, as I said, that is not the point. The point is that I have been saying for a while now that Obama would be impeached by this Congress. And not because anyone in the party hierarchy wants to impeach him, or thinks it would be a good strategic move. No. He would be impeached because something would happen, some sort of mini-scandal or whatever, and some Republicans would decide it was impeachable. And then, given the fact that no Republican is ever allowed to say anything that's any more reasonable than anything any other Republican has said, even more Republicans will get on the bandwagon. And suddenly it will become the single most pressing demand of the Republican base. After all, it makes perfect sense: if Obama's an evil socialist Muslim Kenyan whose entire Presidency is unconstitutional, then, hey, why haven't you impeached him for that already? And then John Boehner will have very little choice but to accede to the tide of popular sentiment.

So here we have our first little mini-scandal, except that it's not even a scandal at all, and we see both a leading Presidential candidate (who knows a little something about frivolous impeachments) and a member of the House Judiciary committee calling for Obama's impeachment over it. If this goes all the way to the Senate (where the trial would really just be for show, because there's no chance in hell they'd convict), you heard it here first.