NORQUIST: Obama can sit there and let all the tax [cuts] lapse, and then the Republicans will have enough votes in the Senate in 2014 to impeach.
ThinkProgess suggests impeaching Pres. Obama because Congress let tax cuts expire would be tough sledding:
Norquist certainly revels in his power, but suggesting Republicans impeach the president over tax cuts is wildly outlandish. According to the Constitution, the president, vice president, or public officials can only be impeached for “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Preserving a tax cut that gives more to the top 1 percent than the average income of the 99 percent hardly qualifies.
On the other hand, in 1998, under the leadership of GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republicans impeached Pres. Bill Clinton because he lied in a deposition for civil lawsuit unrelated to his presidency about an extramarital affair.
By contrast, in 2007, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preemptively took impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney off the table, despite evidence that they and other top administration officials had lied to the public about their reasons for invading Iraq and then had engaged in war crimes by ordering the CIA and others to torture terror suspects.
While the impeachment of Clinton failed, it eventually produced a political success for Republicans in that it softened support for Clinton’s would-be successor, Vice President Al Gore. As a result, the vote in Florida in the 2000 election was so close that it enabled Bush, Gore’s opponent, to launch a legal challenge to the Florida count that ultimately led to his being appointed to the presidency by the Republican-controlled U.S. Supreme Court.
It is telling that, nine months out from the 2012 presidential election, that Norquist, one of the top tier of GOP power brokers, is already planning ahead in order to set up a a similar gambit for the second of half of Pres. Obama’s second term.
Maybe some smart law and order prosecutor could make out a case for an indictment against Norquist for something like a RICO case- it sounds like he is engaging in types of racketeering by using strong arm tactics against his own folks if they consider tax hikes; misusing the judicial/legislative system to influence politics, and maybe even bribing his own constituents with his campaign war chest…It doesn’t have to succeed- just smear Norquist the same way he smears everyone else. Just thinking….