As I have chronicled, conservatives have been plotting Obama’s impeachment since 2009, and it’s only getting worse: Try Googling “impeach” and “Benghazi” and see what you get. But now they’re peddling the story that it’s Obama who’s trying to get impeached, based on the fact that Democrats are fundraising off the threat of a new Republican Senate railroading the President.
Translation: from one nutter to another, please find another issue. This impeachment stuff has no legs. It’s killing us. Go dig through his summer camp records or something.
Commentary: If Obama made a big campaign in favor of breathing, wingnuts would drop like flies.
c u n d gulag
I call this “The Six Year Bitch.”
Since FDR, only Bill Clinton served two consecutive terms as a Democratic President.
Truman finished of FDR’s 4th, LBJ was reelected after succeeding the martyred JFK but then didn’t run again, and Carter only won one term.
So, Republicans got used to Democrats not finishing 2 full terms.
And so, the Republicans started looking to impeach Clinton from the start, to stop him from serving 2 full terms.
And they want to do the same to President Obama.
Of course, that their efforts on impeaching Clinton didn’t stop him from finishing out his 2 terms doesn’t enter into the heads of the historically and reality challenged!
Baud
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.–Adlai E. Stevenson
dmsilev
PSA: “Michelle and Barack Obama urge you _not_ to drink bleach and lick power outlets.”
aimai
I read Roy this morning, as I do every morning–it was a thing of beauty.
dmsilev
Also, too, shouldn’t the title of this post really be “Stewardess! I speak wingnut.”?
MattF
Someone must have noticed how cheerful liberals become at the mention of impeachment. Cleek’s Law in reverse, I guess.
Baud
Speaking of good news.
donnah
And if Obama personally discovered the cure for cancer, the wingnuts would accuse him of putting doctors out of business.
MattF
Oh, and btw, John Dickerson (Slate’s political correspondent) is an idiot:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/07/republican_party_s_battle_of_ideas_the_gop_s_2016_presidential_candidates.html
Villago Delenda Est
If only he would. Or, as dmsilev suggests, encourage them not to drink bleach.
I will give them credit for one thing…they have at least the sense to not come out and call him, loud and proud and in public, a ni*CLANG*. Although the pressure must be something fierce to do so. I’m thinking that one of them is going to have a Mr. Creosote moment any time now and just burst.
Scott S.
@dmsilev: Democrats should impeach Obama for not doing this! He could’ve done so much to fix the country with just a few simple admonishments for wingnuts to steer clear of flinging themselves into woodchippers…
RSA
Lowry, like his earlier Mayberry Machiavelli masters, looks at policy decisions and sees only politics. Deciding how to deal with immigrant children? The real goal is to make Republicans look bad.
Suffern ACE
@MattF: lol. Just. I mean. Is there a word limit on slate opinion pieces? A whole article on these new Republican policy ideas, and not one specific example of one of these new policy proposals. I guess that would be too difficult.
Amir Khalid
As I remember, the plan is to impeach Obama on a charge of “We don’t like your face, so there”. House Republicans have the numbers to send him to trial in the Senate, but there are far too few Senate Republicans to convict; and going after Obama with such a glaringly frivolous charge would only hurt their own party in the end.
Knowing all this, and knowing that (in their universe, at least) Obama is deliberately inviting impeachment, shouldn’t House Republicans fear that, if they vote to impeach, they are the ones being led into a trap?
HelpThe99ers
The President *has* come out in favor of breathing. The RWNJ’s response? Two words: Coal. Rolling.
David Hunt
I think that the GOP sees a victory that came out of the Clinton Impeachment, regardless of the how unpopular it was. Their view is that it made Al Gore run away from associating himself with Clinton’s accomplishments. It was one of the many factors that made the 2000 election close enough to steal. Why wouldn’t they try that again?
Certified Mutant Enemy
Obama should do a PSA on the dangers of drinking Drano®…
Redshift
Complaining about fundraising off impeachment threats that numerous Republicans are openly making must be the new version of complaining about being “smeared” by video of their own words.
Amir Khalid
@MattF:
Why wait for The Onion to do it to you, when you can do it to yourself first and scoop them?
Fred
Republicans “…running the federal government like a demolition derby…”
Thash jusht beuoootifool! I must squirrel that away for future discussions with my wingnut friends. I still have a couple. We love each other in spite of our differences. It take a lot of love and a good sense of humor.
Redshift
@RSA: Yeah, pure projection. It’s what they’d do, so it must be what he’s doing.
beth
@MattF: Does anyone really believe this new line of compassion coming from the Republicans? Rubio, Paul and Ryan keep coming out with statements about how their shiny new plans are going to help immigrants, cure poverty, create jobs and defeat racism once and for all. It’s just too bad that they have to wait until they become President to try and put those plans into action – if only they could have jobs where they could affect social change and economic policy in some way,,,,,
Citizen_X
No, I think it has to be slightly more subtle, like telling them, “Get some exercise, and don’t eat crap food.” That would get them doing the opposite out of pure fury.
And with that in mind: well done, Madame First Lady.
aimai
@HelpThe99ers: Yep. Already been done. Unfortunately they aren’t doing it just inside their own garages and gassing themselves to death. The Boston Globe article on these assholes yesterday was just jaw dropping. They are truly among the shambling, mouth breathing, zombie hordes of unthinking right wing ressentment hunters.
WaterGirl
@beth:
hahahahaha
aimai
@David Hunt: Because Biden isn’t going to run? Because the next candidate can win with just the Obama coalition and new voters and probably doesn’t see the need to pander to the right wingers?
D58826
@beth: It will be like welfare reform. Block grant the programs and then never increase funding to deal with inflation and a growing population. And like welfare reform declare success because the number of people on the program has declined. Never mind that the numbers declined because people were kicked out of the program. Of course the ‘life coaches’ opens an entirely new line of for profit grifters, just like charter schools.
Ruckus
@Suffern ACE:
I guess that would be too
difficultimpossible.Hard to produce something that doesn’t exist. FIXD
Patrick
@Citizen_X:
That has been one of the most stunning things. Michelle Obama has argued for exercise and eating better food. Never in my wildest dreams would I have though this was controversial, let alone that idiots like Michelle Bachmann or the Republicans would oppose such a recommendation. And where the hell has the media been in calling the idiots out?!
Percysowner
@MattF:
In other news, water is wet, the sky is blue and ice is cold.
Cervantes
@beth:
Rubio, Paul, and Ryan may be new to compassion but not everyone is!
— Princeton Class Notes, February, 2000.
Iowa Old Lady
@Patrick: The thing is, opposing healthy food and exercise seems so stupid, that it’s possible the media feels stupid calling it out. Maybe.
Redshift
@D58826: People were kicked off welfare and they explicitly blocked funds to track what happened to them afterwards, so they could pretend they were all success stories about escape from the horrors of dependency.
Citizen_X
@Cervantes: Wow. Ted Cruz, a face that oozes compassion. Or something.
Woodrowfan
“Compassionate Conservatism” = stepping OVER the homeless, not on them.
Cacti
O/T but I’m thankful this morning to have kind neighbors.
A family catastrophe nearly happened when my beagle and basset got put out this morning to do their business but the back gate had been left open, and no one realized it for about an hour. A neighbor found them in her driveway, took them in, and gave me a call.
Whew.
OzarkHillbilly
Remember that right-white wing freak out when Obama made a video in favor of education?
Yatsuno
@Cacti: Bassets aren’t usually big wanderers. You got REALLY lucky with the beagle though! One rabbit comes across their path and BOOM! they’re gone!
David Hunt
@aimai: I think that they expect to be running against Hillary Clinton and she was part of the Administration. I expect if any article of impeachment are actually drawn up, they’ll make sure to say something about Bengazi so they can slur her as well. Plus, they might hope that impeachment now might bring up negative associations with the Clinton Impeachment that will stick to her.
Plus I’m not sure it has to actually make sense for them to do it. Any Democrat in the White House must be illegitimate. It’s axiomatic.
Woodrowfan
@Cacti: glad they’re ok. that’s scary.
Cervantes
@David Hunt:
That is precisely as far as it goes, not one inch further.
All the “justifications” come afterwards.
Corner Stone
I, for one, am just so very happy John Kerry is our Sec of State. I would say he’s gone rogue off Obama’s plan but at this point, it’s difficult to conceive that anyone has an actual plan at all.
rikyrah
stop yapping and do it, mofos.
JUST.DO.IT.
Corner Stone
I like this José Díaz-Balart guy. Seems a little stiff sometimes but may be getting better.
Corner Stone
@MattF: I loved that article, thanks!
Party of Ideas. The Ideas Men.
Wild laughter is such a great way to get the day in gear.
Iowa Old Lady
@Cacti: Glad they’re home, Cacti.
FlipYrWhig
@Citizen_X: “Compassionate” means “with a sharpened point, like a draftsman’s compass,” right?
D58826
@Redshift: Obviously a feature not a bug. GOP is the same old sour wine in the same old cheap bottles. Just spiffy up the labels a bit and blow off the dust nothing changes
D58826
@Yatsuno: Our basset wanders from sunny spot to couch to sunny spot with the occasional side trip to the treat box followed by a brisk tot to the dinner bowl . I want to come back as my basset
iami
Obama ought to change his party affiliation to republican.
Davis X. Machina
@Cervantes: Countries with crises of legitimacy like that usually dissolve into civil war — except Belgium.
We did that once. 1860. Then it was ‘No Republican administration can actually govern America’ — and wherever that administration’s writ runs is self-evidently not-America.
Eric U.
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, but ever since Reagan when they figured out that people that didn’t know a damn thing could run the country (after a fashion) they have been against education. It was the mark of a true wingnut back then to want to get rid of the department of education, now that is so mainstream republican that they barely even talk about it
Cephalus Max
@Yatsuno:
Are you kidding me? Mine will wander off for miles if I let him, enjoying one smell after another, and with no clue how to get back home. He’ll just do it slowly, unlike a beagle.
Davis X. Machina
@Eric U.:
This is an ancient trope, goes back at least to Andrew Jackson’s time — that the country should be run by people who don’t know a damn thing.
I dimly recall a Mr. Dooley quote to the effect that “In a democracy, each man is as good as his neighbor, and often much better.”
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
Unbelievable. A front group called “Citizens for Property Rights” is opposing FEC’s All Aboard Florida train from South Florida to Orlando because NIMBY.
What about FEC’s property rights? It’s an active fucking freight line. Seriously, this is child throwing a tantrum territory here.
OzarkHillbilly
@Eric U.: Yeah, even a Republican can run a country… right into the ground.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Davis X. Machina: Didn’t a study come out recently showing that picking leaders at random would perform better than the way we choose leaders now?
Of course, any leader has to be educated. Right now TPTB never want anyone in charge long enough to learn how the game works. That way you take power away from the electorate or a good leader and give it to entrenched lobbyists, staff, etc.
Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)
@Redshift: Aside from cutting CPB one of the big thinks Newtie did was stop the CBO from following up on shit. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. The glorious revolution is a success!
boatboy_srq
@Patrick: The Obamas could come out in favor of sunshine and puppies and the GOTea would shriek that they’re strangling kittens for fun and destroying farmers through drought.
Honestly, though, the reaction to the healthy eating and exercise statements may be effective in the long run, but it’d be faster, simpler, cheaper and less messy if the Obamas just suggested that playing in traffic is a bad idea.
And let’s not forget that exercise and meditation already are Satanic Practices Not To Be Tolerated By Good Gawd-Fearing Xtian Ahmurrcans…
KG
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): picking leaders at random would work only about 73% of the time.
boatboy_srq
@KG: I see what you did there.
boatboy_srq
Dupe post. FYWP.
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer):
There was an Office of Technology Assessment whose job was to provide Congress with “objective and authoritative analysis of the complex scientific and technical issues of the late 20th century.” Blasphemy, of course — so you will not be surprised to learn that Newt Gingrich shut it down soon after his Republican hordes took Capitol Hill.
(The old OTA web-site is still archived at Princeton.)
Davis X. Machina
@Cervantes: For further examples, see the Washington Monthly’s recent The Big Lobotomy: How Republicans Made Congress Stupid .
catclub
@D58826:
I am sure they would be happy to increase them if the number of states goes up. You people are so cynical.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): A conservative fact (i.e. total bullshit) is that mass transit allows darkies to more easily get into white neighborhoods to steal their valuable goods and rape their precious wimmens. They’ll oppose anything that’s not one man, one car.
boatboy_srq
@David Hunt:
You ARE kidding, yes? Impeachment was almost the best bit of PR that the Clintons ever got: in one single move their opposition was shown up as a bunch of rabid, ubermoralizing, hypocritical blowhards. It’s hard to imagine that whole episode would not work in Dems’ favor in 2016.
Suffern ACE
@Another Holocene Human (now with new computer): But there will be stops. And people might get off. And steal your TV and then get back on the train to escape.
Helen
The comments over at NRO, as usual, are AWESOME.
Wingnut 1: IMPEACH!!
Wingnut 2: No, that’s what Obama wants.
Wingnut 3: Then let’s give him what he wants!!! Stoopid N-CLANG.
Wingnut 4: False Flag; he only wants us to think that he wants us to impeach. He doesn’t really want it.
Wingnut 5: IMPEACH!!
Wingnut 6: (and this one os a direct quote) “The People are…HOPING that someone will come to the rescue – people like Jeff Sessions for example.”
Wingnut 7: ACORN!!
I love wingnut tears. I really do.
Someguy
Other than some nuts nobody important listens too (looking at you, Saralaska) the impeachment talk is nonsense. I think the WH is spinning it up hoping for a huge conflagration that they can fundraise and campaign on in the fall. The Republicans want no part of it; do you really think Boehner, who is filing what he knows is a non-justiciable lawsuit wants to provide any campaign fodder at all? I’m pretty sure the script at this point is to try to goad the Republicans into doing something stupid. Thing is, the WH doesn’t seem to have any non-obvious plans for doing so. The Republicans are morons but they are not Wiley Coyote clones. You can only get them to run off the same cliff so many times.
Sorry, but it’s nonsense. Pure talking point,fundraising dogcrap. And you’re a moron if you fall for it.
Davis X. Machina
@Helen:Hey, everyone at NRO:
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they laugh at you
Then they laugh at you some more…
gene108
@Amir Khalid:
I used to think this, but it will fire up both the Republican base and African-Americans. Turn off a lot of voters already despondent and be a net loss for Democrats.
The Republican base will be energized because the are finally getting what they want: Impeachment of President Obama. They are rage-addicts and need a bigger and bigger “hit” to keep their rage going and impeachment is the only “drug” strong enough for their passions now.
African-Americans will be pissed off that the first black President is frivolously getting impeached.
I think neither the increased AA turn our or wing-nut turn out will matter; they will off-set each other.
I think a lot of voters, already despondent about the sad state of affairs will decide to tune out, because impeachment is not going to make things better. This is in part what happened in 2010.
A lot of voters got really despondent at the state of the economy, their future prospects and decided nobody was looking out for them and did not vote, versus the 2008 election, when they were “fired up and ready to go”, while the Republican base got re-energized by the rebranding effort that the Tea Party “movement” and turned out in greater numbers.
It is not a lock that impeachment would hurt Republicans.
Elizabelle
@Cacti:
Relieved to hear a beagle and basset are safe and sound.
Great neighbor!
different-church-lady
But he won’t do it because HIPPIE PUNCHING!
Someguy
Let me clarify what I said above. If you believe the impeachment talk, you’re as stupid as the scattered wingnuts who believe it.
That is all.
boatboy_srq
@Someguy: Sorry: not buying it. Boehner is a tool, best suited for schmoozing Big Business for campaign cash and making sausage. For every one like him there’s a rabid
ConfederateTeahadist who thinks just being in the WH while Black is a capital offense. The leadership may not want an impeachment – but the rank and file haven’t been listening to them since 2011, and there’s no reason to believe they’ll start now.I don’t expect they’ll do it: the spectre of an impeachment next term is too good for raising funds off the rubes. But it won’t be Very Serious Republicans who keep it from happening.
brettvk
@MattF: Dickerson and Plotz were why I gave up on the Slate political podcast. The intellectual dishonesty and the elite cluelessness just got too chokingly thick.
WaterGirl
@Cacti: Years ago I had to take my beloved cocker spaniel to the vet to have her put down. I left my other dog in the fenced in yard. I worked at the vet school at the time, so we got some nice time in the green grass under the trees before I took her inside for the shots. Then I got a lot of time under the trees afterwards to try to make my peace with it.
So I come home hours later and find the gate is open. I am sure my other dog is lying in the street somewhere, dead. Both dogs in one day. But I look up and there’s my fog, lying down at the door, waiting to be let in. Good boy.
coin operated
One needs only look at that frivolous lawsuit to see how this will go down. Weeping Cheeto doesn’t have the spine needed to press the button on impeachment. He floated the lawsuit as a trial balloon and it was widely (and rightly) mocked the moment it got out the door.
Cckids
@Cacti: Whew! THOSE are good neighbors!
6 years ago, our Pom escaped thru a back gate, was gone for 3 days. We found out later that a “friend” had seen him crossing a (very busy) street & didn’t attempt to get him, nor did she call us, even after seeing the dozens of Lost Dog pics we had up by the next morning.
Bitch.
brantl
If we couild convince them that breathing was like TAXES, ALL the Republicans would be dead!
Bill Arnold
@coin operated:
Does anyone have a list of nicknames for J. Boehner? I guess “Orange Julius” is out with E. Cantor?
PurpleGirl
This dog incident happened years ago. I was spending the weekend with my friends in Peekskill. They had big, rust colored retired racing greyhound they were trying to find a home for. (How they got this dog is another story, in itself.) Anyway, the backyard is fenced in. I left the gate to the staircase open. a short time later, realizing this I look to see who is in the yard and the big rusty-colored dog is gone. My friend D and I go out looking for him on foot, then we drive around a bit. No dog. We are starting to worry now, thinking he’s taken off running. Then I notice him going down the stairs. We run up to the house and see the dog has entered the backyard and we close the gate. (Once a retired racer is able to run free, they often just keep running, and they resist being house bound.)
I figure the dog’s thoughts went something like this: Hmmm, where am I going, that place was warm, and they fed me, and I had cookies. They gave me cookies. COOKIES. I should go back there.
A short time later, Rusty was rehomed with a family who besides owning a large tract in Westchester Cty, had a 400-acre ranch in Wyoming. Rusty would be able to run to his heart’s content at will whenever he wanted to.
Cacti — I’m glad you have those critters back.