An impeachment limerick
Consider the mighty Repubs, beating Obama with clubs...
Consider the mighty Repubs
beating Obama with clubs.
but talk of "impeachment"
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a grand over-reach-ment
will keep them the party of scrubs.
A rule of media thermodynamics: For every conservative over-action, there is an equally breathless and ideologically opposite counter-action. If conservatives have become geese that continually lay malformed eggs, progressives are the type to continually sample it and then critique the recipe, even if the point is simply for them to eat something disgusting.
That means that the idea of impeachment has to be actually entertained, which then means that it becomes a legitimate debate topic on cable news, which will create enough chum in the water for the gaggle to feast on.
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1. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, whose Benghazi hearings have proven only that Benghazi can be covered by the mainstream media, believes that Obama could be impeached because his "lies ...gets to the highest levels of our government, and integrity and honesty are paramount." (What lies? Not sure.)
2. Sen. James Inhofe thinks that Obama should be impeached for perpetuating "the most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history." (Of what? Not sure.)
Go ahead and try.
It's the one way Republicans can waste the political capital that they'll get from the one real potential scandal, that of the IRS' ill-considered targeting of low-level conservative groups. That's not a scandal that implicates the White House, but it's enough of a "see I told you so," and it does shift the burden to proving somehow that Obama is not involved in any of this, or that these "scandals" aren't really scandals, but just (1) a tragedy, (2) poor bureaucratic judgment, and (3) an aggressive legal prosecution of leaks of classified information.
But, you know, by all means, go ahead and try to impeach him. It's a great way to avoid governing.
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Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.
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