Five myths about impeachment

◼ Some 40 years after Richard Nixon resigned to avoid his likely impeachment by the House of Representatives, Washington is again talking impeachment. Members of Congress are denouncing the president’s contempt for constitutional law, while the president is raising money to fight the effort to remove him. But this time, the money pouring in would be just as well spent on defense against Bigfoot. Much of the debate has been more mythological than constitutional. - Jonathan Turley/Washington Post

1. An impeachable offense is anything Congress says it is.
2. An impeachable offense must involve a violation of criminal law.
3. History establishes a clear precedent for impeachable conduct.
4. Impeaching a president is like recalling a governor.
5. Obama is in danger of impeachment.

...Obama is as likely to be impeached as he is to be installed as the next pontiff. And I say that as someone who has testified in Congress that this president has violated federal laws, unconstitutionally appointed various executive-branch officers and improperly transferred money. Nevertheless, many of these disputes have divided judges on the merits. Presidents are allowed to challenge Congress in such conflicts without being subject to impeachment. Where they cross the line is when they ignore final judicial rulings in acts of contempt of both courts and Congress. Obama has not done that.

◼ Does ´No Impeachment´ Fulfill Alinsky´s Rule #4? - Jeannie DeAngelis/American Thinker

...This smacks of a Saul Alinsky Rule #4 “gotcha” if ever there was one, because John and Mitch may have been abruptly hooked by Barack Obama’s bait.

If they have, from the president’s standpoint this may be a bigger catch than Osama Bin Laden, because it paves the way for what Alinsky advised when he said, “make the enemy live up to its own book of rules” -- and that would mean that America loses.

How, you ask, does America lose by Republicans vowing not to impeach?

Easy! After Obama breaks the rules, thanks to their own proclamation, Republicans are now beholden to the rulebook they themselves created. As a result, this subversive president, against the will of the American people, can now dive without impediment into the impeachable offense of granting amnesty to millions of lawbreaking individuals.

After what looked like an attempt to blow the president’s scam and head off a stealthy maneuver, Republicans may have been majorly conned into tying their own hands, which, if that was the goal, is precisely what the president would have hoped for.

Now, if Obama acts without Congressional approval, if those who said they had no plans to impeach turn around and move to impeach, Barack ‘Alinsky Junior’ Obama is ‘fundamentally transformed,’ in the eyes of the public, into a misunderstood victim, persecuted by a band of bumbling politicians on the right who broke their word.

Either way, Barack Obama wins!