Let’s be serious… President Obama will not be impeached!  It just isn’t going to happen!  Even if there were enough votes in the House to find the President had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” – and getting this number of votes isn’t guaranteed – there aren’t enough votes in the Senate to convict him.

Even if Republicans take control of the Senate in the midterm elections there’ll still not be the two-thirds needed to remove the President from office.  Now that is not to say he hasn’t committed what some would consider “high crimes and misdemeanors,” it’s only saying that it would be impossible to convict him in the U.S. Senate. 

Consider this; the President has taken an oath to faithfully uphold the laws of the United States.  That means he has a responsibility to enforce and defend all the laws that have been passed by Congress and signed into law.  An Administration cannot just pick and choose which laws it will, or won’t, defend in court.  In order to make such a decision it needs to analyze the law and determine that its provisions are unconstitutional.  The President cannot just wake up one morning and say we are not going to enforce or defend law XYZ because my policies are in conflict with it. 

When the President said he is not going to enforce some of the immigration laws, what we heard was lots about “fairness” but nothing about the “constitutionality” of the statutes he was choosing not to enforce.  This would lead us to draw the conclusion that these decisions were based on his policies and not the constitution!

If the President disagrees with a law he has “inherited” then it’s his responsibility to come to Congress and work with them to change the law instead of threatening them by saying “If you don’t act, I will!”  There are all kinds of rumors that Obama is planning to change immigration laws through executive orders this summer.  To attempt to do so would be an abuse of power and an overreach of his authority under the Constitution.

All this brings us to what the House of Representative did before adjourning for its summer recess.  It voted 225-201 to sue the President for overstepping his authority.  Why would they do this?  One reason is that they will now make their case before the judicial branch of government and not the U.S. Senate [through impeachment].  It is the responsibility of the Judiciary to keep both the legislative and executive branches “honest.”  The hope is that the Supreme Court will – as it already has on several occasions – find the Obama Administration has again overstepped its authority.  [See our column of July 28th on the Roberts’ Court]

But let’s get back on point:  Why is there so much talk about impeachment and where is it coming from?   Answer:  It’s coming from senior White House officials – not Republicans!  Their party is in desperate need of money and energizing their base so they can keep control of the U.S. Senate.  So regardless of the truth of the matter, they’re willing to manipulate (some would say spin) the storyline in a way that brings in the money they seek.  Apparently it’s working; they have already raised millions of dollars with this story! 

An uninformed electorate is a danger to our society.  That is just one of the reasons we write these columns every week!  We encourage you to seek the truth, and the truth will set you free!

Bill, Mark and John