The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is using Republican impeachment threats against President Obama as a fundraising tool.
A DNC blog post that was emailed to donors on Saturday features quotes from Republican members of Congress talking about impeaching Obama.
{mosads}“We can have an impeachment hearing in the House and in my mind, the president has committed impeachable offenses,” Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) is quoted as saying.
“If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it,” is another quote, from Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas).
The blog then concludes with the message, “Show these Republicans that they are way, way off-base, and give President Obama a Congress that has his back.”
It asks for donations for Democrats running in 2014 before midnight on Tuesday, the end of the year. It notes Democrats “only need to win 17 Republican seats to win back the House of Representatives.” Political observers generally do not expect Democrats to win back the House. The president’s party usually loses seats in the House in midterm elections.
While the blog post quotes members of the far right of the Republican Party, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has also hinted at impeachment. He is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would begin impeachment proceedings. While not calling for impeachment outright, he convened a hearing on “The President’s Duty to Faithfully Execute the Laws,” in December, and said “Obama is the first president since Richard Nixon to ignore a duly-enacted law simply because he disagrees with it.”
Even if the House did impeach Obama, it would be up to the Democratically-controlled Senate to try him.