Obama at the Sochi Winter Olympics

The I-word

Republicans in congress seem averse to considering impeaching the president. I think they believe there would be a political backlash based on the public’s reaction to the impeachment of Clinton. If that is true, they should be more concerned about performing their role in the checks and balances our founding fathers intended when they created the co-equal branches of government, than backlash.

Impeaching a president because he lied about having sex with an intern is in no way comparable to impeaching a president who refuses to do what he is constitutionally obligated to do.

Article II, Section 4 of the constitution stipulates in that a president “shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”. Treason and bribery are easily understood. But what are “high crimes and misdemeanors” as it relates to impeachment.

The constitutional convention adopted the phrase from English Common Law with which they were all familiar. The English parliament had used “high crimes and misdemeanors” as one of the reasons to impeach officials of the crown. “High”, in this case, does not mean “serious” but offenses perpetrated by those in high office. These “crimes and misdemeanors” do not have to be illegal, just a demonstration of a serious abuse of power or an abuse of the public trust.

The president takes an oath to” faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”. Article II, Section 3, of the constitution contains what is known as the Take Care Clause. This clause states the President must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed” even if he disagrees with the purpose of the law. Obama has clearly demonstrated that he will enforce only the laws, or portions of the laws he likes. He openly admits he thinks he does not need Congress to do what he wants to do and will act unilaterally. Examples of this include:

• Obama ordered all U.S. attorneys to stop charging nonviolent, non-gang-related drug defendants involved with crimes that carry mandatory sentences instead of persuading Congress to change mandatory drug sentences.
• Obama directed the immigration service to cease proceedings against young illegal immigrants brought here as children when Congress refused to pass the Dream Act.
• Obama illegally waived the work requirements from the established law called the Welfare Reform Act.

The breach of his oath alone should qualify as an abuse of power and abuse of the public trust and should qualify him for impeachment.

But wait, there’s more!

Obama sicced the departments of the executive branch on his political opponents to further his political agenda or to punish his perceived enemies. Examples include:

• The IRS suppressed conservative groups from raising money to oppose Obama’s candidacy
• Obama accused a U.S. citizen of causing the uprising in Libya which cost the lives of four Americans so he wouldn’t look bad prior to the last presidential election. This citizen was thrown in jail on unrelated charges even though recent facts in the case clearly indicate that the actions of that U.S. citizen had nothing to attack in Benghazi and the administration knew it at the time of the attack.
• The NSA was caught monitoring AP reporters and a Fox News reporter
• The Obama Justice department indicted a filmmaker, who made a film critical of Obama, for improper campaign contributions
• The Obama Justice department is suing Standard & Poor’s for its involvement in the financial crises in 2008. Although Moody’s and Fitch were also involved, only S&P is included in the lawsuit. It also happens that only S&P downgraded the credit rating of the U.S. in 2011 at which time Obama’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, told S&P chairman Harold McGraw that S&P’s decision would be “looked at very carefully” and would prompt “a response from the government”.

Senator Obama was very critical of the power President George W. Bush wielded as demonstrated in the video below.

But the taste of power changes everything.

Obama is out of control. If this president does not deserved to be impeached, what would it take: driving women off a bridge and leaving her to die?

Future presidents will know Congress is unwilling to stop presidential abuses of power if Obama is not held accountable for his behavior. This should make even liberals worry. He won’t be president forever. We may even have an evil Republican president. It will be too late by then to claim the president is shredding the constitution or restricting our liberties.

It is the job of Congress to check the power of the president. If Congress doesn't do their jobs, they should be removed from office at the very next election.