Palin the constitutional expert

It has been a while since former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) embarrassed herself, but staying out of the news isn’t good for her livelihood, which relies on lucrative speeches, television appearances and a regular stream of news accounts of her Facebook posts where she offers up her special brand of leadership. So since things have been a bit quiet for her, this week she insisted that everyone who resists impeaching President Obama must go. In her words, “we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment,” and this other choice sentence: “Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president. His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, ‘No mas.’ Opening our borders to a flood of illegal immigrants is deliberate. It’s time to impeach.” She surely didn’t want you to miss her slap at Latino battered wives while she accused the president of the United States of intentionally creating a humanitarian crisis involving more than 70,000 people.

{mosads}It must have been too much fun for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to face reporters this week, knowing he would be asked to weigh in on the latest guidance Palin had offered up to the Grand Old Party. “I disagree,” Boehner said, something he had to repeat when asked the question — again — another way. In her inspirational call to arms, Palin had made a point of mocking the suit Boehner is filing against Obama on behalf of House Republicans, saying “you don’t bring a lawsuit to a gun fight.” That’s pretty rich, considering the lawsuit was created in order to quiet conservatives calling for impeachment. Rational Republicans decided a long time ago that impeaching Obama is a one-way ticket to political irrelevance. Which is why someone like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — looking for a future in politics, possibly including the presidency, instead of a past — had to admit when pressed by CNN that “that’s not my position.”

And then there is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who gets credit for birthing the phenomenon that is Palin. Shocker — he also disagrees. “I respect always Sarah Palin’s views, but my particular view is that we should devote our energies to regaining the majority in the Senate,” McCain said. “I saw the impeachment scenario with former President Clinton and it was not a good thing to do. The American people didn’t like it. The American people wanted us to do their work and that was overall opinion at the time. It did not sit well with the American people.” Trying to urge reason in an unreasonable debate, McCain said that “the real answer is to get control of the United States Senate and then we can enact legislation which would curb exactly what Sarah Palin and others want to impeach him for. You’re never going to get 67 votes in the United States Senate either.” Those trying to “defund” Obamacare last year never let a lack of votes get in their way.

Palin isn’t the first conservative calling to impeach the president, and she won’t be the last. There are conservatives everywhere hoping Obama could somehow be convicted of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” but those experts on the Constitution should spend some more time looking those words up in the dictionary and giving some thought to a legal path forward, particularly before giving any money to a “leader” or lawmaker who tells them that just like defunding ObamaCare, the votes are there.

Democrats can count — their email titled “Palin Humiliated” (about her impeachment push) brought in 10,000 donations in 24 hours to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

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