Another GOP member of Congress says sentiment is building to impeach President Obama.
Pennsylvania Representative Lou Barletta says an vote to impeach Obama would “probably pass” the House.
“He’s just absolutely ignoring the Constitution, and ignoring the laws, and ignoring the checks and balances,” Barletta said. “The problem is, you know, what do you do? For those that say impeach him for breaking the laws or bypassing the laws. Could that pass in the House? It probably, it probably could. Is the majority the American people in favor of impeaching the president? I’m not sure.”
MSNBC’s Steve Benen notes Barletta is the latest voice in a crowd calling for impeachment that includes Utah’s Jason Chaffetz.
Ordinarily, lawmakers eyeing the possibility of impeachment come up with some kind of specific rationale beyond “he’s just absolutely ignoring the Constitution,” though as we’ve noted before, the current crop of GOP impeachment advocates don’t seem to bother. Maybe the party believes the grounds for impeachment are so obvious that they don’t need to elaborate; maybe the party no longer cares whether they have a coherent rationale or not.Just so we’re clear, I don’t really expect Republicans to pursue this in a serious way, and my coverage on the issue is intended more as a “look how silly this is” than a “look at this threat to our constitutional system of government.” If for no other reason, GOP lawmakers wouldn’t try impeaching the president because they’d risk motivating the Democratic base to show up in the 2014 midterms – which is exactly what happened in the sixth-year midterms for the last two-term Democratic president.
