Are fringe Republicans trying to impeach President Obama?

On Wednesday, in his first press conference since winning re-election, President Obama showed renewed swagger, answering questions with an easy confidence that was missing in the tense weeks leading up to Election Day. But perhaps Obama shouldn't let his guard down: Some conservatives are still plotting ways to oust him from power. Nearly 22,000 people have already signed a Nov. 11 petition to the White House demanding that Obama be impeached (never mind that their grievance targets the wrong branch of government). Impeachment has become a veritable battle cry on Twitter, with angry Republicans applying the hashtag #impeach to their complaints about the Obama administration.

Now, a conservative group has started a grassroots movement to make impeachment a reality. "The Conservative Majority Fund, a conservative group known primarily for its birther conspiracy spreading, has launched a robocall campaign to gin up support for the president's impeachment," says Sam Stein at The Huffington Post. The call says Obama is "guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors," citing the widely discredited claim that Obama is not an American citizen, among other accusations.

"Conservative Majority Fund is on the fringe of the conservative fringe," says Stein, "so it's not terribly surprising that they moved this quickly to start the drumbeats for the president's impeachment." Among such groups, the possibility of impeachment comes up often when the discussion turns to Benghazi, with many claiming that the Obama administration lied to the American people to cover up a terrorist attack. Far-right websites say Obama continues to lie out of fear he'll be impeached, while even mainstream conservative columnists are peddling conspiracy theories that suggest Obama used David Petraeus' affair to force Petraeus into participating in the cover-up.

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Given these popular talking points, some liberals are bracing for a full-fledged impeachment campaign. After all, the last Democratic president found himself impeached not so long ago. "Whether it's on the basis of the supposed Benghazi cover up, or something else altogether, get ready for the looming extreme right wing war cry of "Impeach Obama," says Alex Marin at PolicyMic, "as the most stubborn factions of an aging Republican Party start to grasp the inevitability of an Obama second term."