Impeach Obama? On What Grounds?

(The caricature of President Obama to the left is by DonkeyHotey.)

The right-wing in this country has long hated President Obama. But they have been unable to even come close to beating him in an election. He easily won in 2008 and 2012. But that hasn't stopped their hatred (probably racially motivated, since no other Democrat has been so viciously attacked by them) was just made worse by those electoral defeats.

Now there is rising sentiment on the right to impeach the president. This is being put forth as an option by some of the teabagger organizations, and they even have a Facebook page calling for the president's impeachment (which I will not link to).

And it isn't just a few racist teabaggers. Several of those in Congress are jumping on the impeachment bandwagon. In the Senate, Tom Coburn and Ted Cruz have expressed that desire (although Cruz did say it probably could not be achieved since the Senate was controlled by Democrats). And a growing number of GOP members of the House are calling for impeachment -- such as Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Michigan), Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Rep. Walter Jones (R-North Carolina), Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), Rep. Trey Radel (R-Florida), and former Rep. Allen West (R-Florida).

But what are the grounds for impeachment? You can't impeach a president just because you don't like him, or you disagree with his politics. The Constitution says the president can be impeached only for "Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors" -- and passing laws you don't like (like Obamacare) does not qualify as any of those reasons.

Some of the feeble reasons put forward so far include the IRS scandal, Benghazi, and not being a citizen. All fall far short. The IRS "scandal" turned out to not be a scandal at all -- since the IRS was not directed to target anyone by the White House, and in fact, investigated just as many progressive groups as right-wing groups. As for Benghazi, the GOP must take more blame for that than the president, since they were the ones responsible for cutting the funding for embassy and consulate security. And the citizenship issue was put to rest long ago, since there is no doubt at all that President Obama was born in Hawaii.

The truth is that this rising call for the impeachment of the president says more about the racial hatred of those calling for it than it says about anything the president has done. There are no grounds for trying to impeach the president. There is only a racist hatred by the right-wing, spurred on by their inability to be successful in national elections.