Politicians from both parties have been talking a lot about the “I-word” — impeachment.
Although everyone from Harry Reid to Sarah Palin has mentioned impeachment, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made it clear Tuesday that House Republicans don’t intend to impeach.
“This whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president’s own staff — and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Why? Because they’re trying to rally their people to give money and show up in this year’s election,” Boehner said during a news conference. “We have no plans to impeach the president; we have no future plans. Listen, it’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.”
While some conservatives have floated impeachment as the solution to Obama’s expansive use of executive orders, Boehner and House leadership have avoided starting such proceedings, choosing instead to proceed with a lawsuit against the president.
But this so-called “scam” seems to be working for their opponents.
Impeachment talk is all over recent Democratic fundraising literature. Within an hour of Boehner’s remarks the House Majority PAC sent out a fundraising email.
“This lawsuit is nothing but a way for Boehner and his colleagues to try and impeach the president – which means we’ve got to get President Obama’s back before the big vote,” it read.
Democrats raised a reported $2.1 million off similar efforts over the weekend, the Washington Examiner reported.
Harry Reid even managed to draw the impeachment issue into his remarks on a bill reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Isn’t it good we’re talking about this rather than impeachment of the president or suing the president?” said Reid. “The American people are totally opposed to this, we shouldn’t be off on those tracks of impeachment, suing the president. We should be legislating.”
For something that isn’t happening, impeachment certainly is on everyone’s minds and, apparently, their wallets.
