Time to Discuss Impeachment?

By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, October 9th, 2009

At the tea party in Washington, D.C., a popular sign read simply, “Impeach Obama.”

As a moderator of discussion on the blog www.exposeobama.com, Floyd has observed the discussion of impeachment is mushrooming amongst conservative activists.

Radio personality Tammy Bruce may have captured these activists’ beliefs about Obama best: “Ultimately, it comes down to … the fact that he seems to have, it seems to me, some malevolence toward this country, which is unabated.”

But has Barack Obama committed an impeachable offense? What exactly constitutes an impeachable offense? Former President Gerald Ford, while serving in the House of Representatives, said an impeachable offense was “whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution reads: “The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The key phrase here is “high crimes and misdemeanors,” a concept in English common law well-known to our Founding Fathers, but grossly misunderstood in this day and age. “High crimes and misdemeanors” essentially means bad behavior.

Here’s a passage from C-Span.org that succinctly summarizes the historical significance surrounding the inclusion of the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” in the Constitution: “‘High crimes and misdemeanors’ entered the text of the Constitution due to George Mason and James Madison. Mason had argued that the reasons given for impeachment - treason and bribery - were not enough. He worried that other “great and dangerous offenses” might not be covered … so Mason then proposed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors,’ a phrase well-known in English common law. In 18th-century language, a ‘misdemeanor’ meant ‘mis-demeanor,’ or bad behavior.”

In other words, “high crimes and misdemeanors” does not refer to a criminal act. Our Founding Fathers fully intended to allow for the removal of the president for actions which include: gross incompetence, negligence and distasteful behavior.

For those who mistakenly hold the illusion that impeaching Barack Hussein Obama would be a simple matter of “playing politics,” the founders fully intended that the impeachment of a sitting president be a political act.

As C-Span.org notes: “The Congress decides the definition [of impeachable offenses]: by majority vote in the House for impeachment, and by two-thirds vote in the Senate for conviction. The Framers of the Constitution deliberately put impeachment into the hands of the legislative branch rather than the judicial branch, thus transforming it from strictly a matter of legal definition to a matter of political judgment.”

Impeachment is no more or less than the recall of an elected official who isn’t up to the job. Obama deserves recall much more than Gov. Gray Davis, and he was replaced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a special recall election Oct. 7, 2003, in California.

America is a monument to the triumph of freedom. When Barack Obama thinks about freedom, he sees a world in which some people, due to personal initiative and good fortune, will do better than others. In that regard, he is right. But Barack Obama sees that as unfair. Where you see freedom, liberty and the opportunity for any American to be all that he or she can be, Obama sees greed and bigotry.

Like so many on the far-left before him, going all the way back to Karl Marx, he believes that it’s his mission to promote “equality of outcome” over “equality of opportunity.” This worldview makes Barack Hussein Obama a very dangerous man, and a threat to your personal liberty.

Worldview explains why he has gobbled up major banks and why the government now controls more and more of our money. And if you wake up one day to discover you’re broke, don’t be surprised. Barack Hussein Obama is Bernie Madoff with the political power of the presidency at his disposal.

Worldview explains why Obama intends to take away your freedom to choose your own doctor and your own treatment. Wherever government controls health care, bureaucrats decide who gets treatments, transplants, dialysis and costly medication.

The groundswell of calls for the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama is growing.

©2009 Floyd and Mary Beth Brown.

The Browns are bestselling authors and speakers. Together they write a national weekly column distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Floyd is also president of the Western Center for Journalism. For more info call Cari Dawson Bartley at 800 696 7561 or e-mail cari@cagle.com.

Floyd’s latest book (with Lee Troxler) is “Obama Unmasked,” from Merril Press. Mary Beth’s latest book is featured at www.condibook.com. Time magazine wrote of Floyd: “Brown has stature among devoted conservatives that almost matches his physical heft (6 ft. 6 in. and 240 lbs.)”

See more at Floyd’s blog at www.2minuteview.com. To comment on this column, e-mail browns@caglecartoons.com

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