House Speaker John Boehner has been a man of few words when it comes to the far-right-fueled talk of impeaching President Barack Obama. But those few words have been pretty direct.
Boehner, R-Ohio, said he disagrees with former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin that Obama should be impeached over the surge of immigrants crossing the U.S. border illegally.
When asked by reporters Wednesday about Palin’s assertion, Boehner twice said ‘I disagree.’
Boehner has threatened to sue Obama for what he considers overreach of the president’s use of his executive authority in order to bypass Congress’ role in running the government.
Boehner has said that his potential lawsuit would not be a prelude to impeaching the president. Some political analysts see Boehner’s legal action as a way of staving off impeachment.
‘I actually think the suit in some ways may be an attempt to head off a much worse problem, the ‘I-word,’ impeachment,’ Norman Ornstein, resident political scholar at the center-right American Enterprise Institute, said Monday on the NPR-syndicated ‘Diane Rehm Show. ‘And my guess is that it’s going to have the opposite effect. I think you have whipped up a lot of people into a frenzy in believing that Barack Obama has crossed every line in terms of an imperial executive. And you get reinforcement with talk radio, Wall Street Journal editorials all over the place.’
Ornstein added: ‘I will be surprised frankly if we end up going through the remainder of Obama’s term without impeachment hitting the House.’
Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of the ‘Cook Political Report,’ told Rehm on Monday that ‘maybe Boehner saw this as the least objectionable option.’
‘…Threatening to sue the president, or in fact, suing the president, may have been the mildest option,’ Cook said. ‘I mean, given members, a not insignificant number of members, (that) would sign up tomorrow with an impeachment – maybe Boehner saw this as the least objectionable avenue.’