In filling in for Rush Limbaugh on his Friday show, conservative commentator Mark Steyn scoffed at the notion Republicans would handle impeachment well enough to even attempt. The author of “The Undocumented Mark Steyn” responded a caller’s question about impeachment and acknowledge that Obama penalizes the lawful, while incentivizing the lawless, but was skeptical congressional Republicans would do anything about it.
As it pertained to impeachment, he pointed to the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s and explained that based upon the Republican Senate leadership’s handling of impeachment at the time, there is no reason to believe it would be handled differently this time around.
“I kind of blow hot and cold on impeachment because you’re dealing with a political class that always makes a mess of it,” Steyn explained to a caller. “I sat in the Senate during the last impeachment trial. That guy should have been impeached as well, and the reason he wasn’t is because it’s a joke process. The Senate is allowed to set the rules. You had Chief Justice Rehnquist, and he didn’t do anything but have this sort of Gilbert and Sullivan robe made up for the occasion.”
Steyn added that since the congressional Republicans seemed to wince at the prospect of disinviting Obama to give a State of the Union speech, impeachment certainly seems to be a step too far as well.
“Is this Republican Party going to impeach Obama? No, they’re not. The president has just insulted the legislative branch by saying: I’m the legislative branch; I’ll legislate. Well, the House of Representatives should say, ‘You can’t change the law. That’s what we do. As long as you’re talking like that, you ain’t coming to give any speech in the people’s chamber!’ Everyone says, ‘Oh no! Dis-inviting the president from the State of the Union? Imagine what the New York Times would say about us!’ If the Republicans won’t even do that, they’re not going to impeach him.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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