LAWSUITS AND IMPEACHMENT

Thomas Sowell


Whenever Democrats are in real trouble
politically, the Republicans seem to come up
with something new that distracts the public's
attention from the Democrats' problems. Who
says Republicans are not compassionate?
With public opinion polls showing President
Obama's sinking approval rate, in the wake of
his administration's multiple fiascoes and
scandals -- the disgraceful treatment of
veterans who need medical care, the Internal
Revenue Service coverups, the tens of
thousands of children flooding across our open
border -- Republicans have created two new
distractions that may yet draw attention away
from the Democrats' troubles.
From the Republican establishment, Speaker of
the House John Boehner has announced plans
to sue Barack Obama for exceeding his
authority. And from the Tea Party wing of the
Republicans, former Governor Sarah Palin has
called for impeachment of the president.
Does President Obama deserve to be sued or
impeached? Yes! Is there a snowball's chance
in hell that either the lawsuit or an
impeachment will succeed? No!
Barack Obama's repeated disregard of the laws
that he is supposed to follow, and his blatantly
changing these laws passed by Congress, are a
threat to the whole Constitutional form of
government, on which all our freedoms
depend.
Once a president -- any president -- can create
his own laws unilaterally, we are on our way
to becoming a banana republic, where
arbitrary rule from the top replaces
representative government by "we the people."
Why not sue Barack Obama then, or impeach
him?
For the simplest of all reasons: Neither of
these actions is going to do anything to stop
Obama, or even discredit him -- and both can
create a distraction that draws attention away
from the Democrats' disasters during an
election year.
Either the lawsuit or an impeachment -- or
both -- can hurt the Republicans, by making it
look like they are playing Mickey Mouse
politics during an election year. President
Obama is already making a joke out of Speaker
Boehner's threatened lawsuit by saying, "So
sue me!"
Courts don't like to get involved in cases
where one branch of government is suing
another -- and the Supreme Court does not
have to take any case that it does not want to
take. Even a lower court can throw out
Boehner's lawsuit as a political issue that does
not belong in court. Then it will be the
Republicans who will have egg on their faces.
As for impeachment, the House of
Representatives can impeach any president
they want to. But an impeachment is
essentially just an indictment that leaves it up
to the Senate to decide whether to vote to
remove the president from office.
So long as the Democrats control the Senate,
impeachment of Barack Obama is guaranteed
to lose. And this too would leave the
Republicans with egg on their faces during an
election year.
The political fate of the Republican Party is not
something that those of us who are not
Republicans need to worry about. If they want
to shoot themselves in the foot again, so be it.
But all Americans have to worry -- and worry
big time -- about the fate of this country if
Republicans blow their chances of taking
control of the Senate.
If Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid continues his iron control, President
Obama can nominate whatever kinds of federal
judges he wants to, knowing that they will be
confirmed by the Senate.
Since federal judges have lifetime tenure, this
would in effect extend the Obama
administration long past the point when
Barack Obama leaves the White House. All he
needs to do is pack the federal courts with
judges who share his contempt for the
Constitution and his zeal to impose a far-left
agenda at all costs.
This year's elections -- especially the Senate
elections -- can decide the fate of this country
for a long time to come. That is why
Republicans' launching of foredoomed
symbolic actions like lawsuits and
impeachment is such an irresponsible self-
indulgence.
When the country is at a historic crossroads is
not the time for futile gestures like this, which
can create bigger disasters than we already
have.