More than just gridlock

MORE THAN JUST GRIDLOCK…. With more than eight months left before the midterm elections, it’s practically impossible to say with any confidence what’s going to happen. With 2010 just getting underway, the winds can shift, more than once.

That said, DougJ ponders what things would be like on the Hill in the event of a Republican House.

My guess is that politically, the biggest thing would do is start lots of investigations. What do you think they would investigate? Anita Dunn and Van Jones, probably, but what else? Would they delve into Obama’s pre-presidential years? Would they hold hearings on his birth certificate? Would they impeach him?

In an update, Doug added that he thinks that Republican congressional candidates “should be asked whether or not they support impeaching Obama.”

Steve M. agrees, adding, “Me, I’d go to teabag rallies and shout ‘Impeach Obama!’ while any GOP candidate was speaking, just to get the candidate on record as either being with the program (in which case his priorities aren’t the average American’s) or not being with the program (in which case he might lose favor in Tea Nation).”

There’s no real limit to what House Republicans are capable of, but the notion that the GOP would try to impeach President Obama seems extremely far-fetched. For one thing, the president hasn’t gotten stuck in any scandals, and there’s no special prosecutor running around digging up dirt. For another, self-interested Republicans would fear an intense public backlash. The idea seems pretty silly.

That said, Steve’s and Doug’s point is a good one. Why not ask GOP candidates to go on the record on this?

Throughout 2006, when Republicans realized that Democrats had a very good shot at reclaiming the congressional majority, one of the single most common GOP attacks before the elections was that Dems would try to impeach Bush and/or Cheney if they were in the majority. (The party had no policy platform or accomplishments to point to, so this became their campaign message.)

The talk was so common that Democratic leaders, much to the chagrin for the party’s base, declared unequivocally before the election that impeachment was “off the table.”

Would Republicans say the same thing now? Would the party’s far-right base tolerate it if they did?

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Steve Benen
