In a series of events reminiscent
of the famous Lewis Carroll book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the right-wing
menace, looking like the Queen of Hearts but otherwise known as the conservative
House Republicans, led by Speaker Boehner, have decided to take legal action
against President Obama. What are the grounds? Effectively, they boil down to
suing the President for doing his job. The Speaker should be wearing the
apparel of the Mad Hatter.
In the past
months, the President has used executive power to alter federal health-care and
other laws where executive implementation was both permitted by statute and badly
needed. In the UK, the government has a
similar power, the use of Statutory Instruments. Anyway, on Wednesday, the
House of Representatives used its Republican majority to clear the way for a
lawsuit, arguing that the President had exceeded his authority.
The lawsuit
faces a doubtful political, not to say legal, future. In the month since the
Republicans made clear their intention to sue Obama, the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee has raised almost $8 billion. That’s a huge
amount of cash which will not be used to support the President. The money will
be directed towards the Mid-Term campaign. Why would so much money come into
the Party coffers? A possible answer is that the Democratic base is incensed
that the President should be treated this way.
The
President himself is clearly ready for a fight. On Thursday he said of Congressional
Republicans, “Everyone sees this as a political
stunt, but it’s worse than that because every vote they’re taking ... means a
vote they're not taking to help people.”
In
a recent CNN International poll, 57 percent of Americans did not believe the Republicans
should file a lawsuit. Just 41 percent think they should. The bigger problem
for Republicans is that the idea of a lawsuit is producing more intense
Democratic resistance than Republican praise. Eighty-four percent of Democrats
are against the idea, while 75 percent of Republicans are for it. Independents also
are opposed to a lawsuit 55 percent to 43 percent.
The
key to success in the midterm elections is firing Party base enthusiasm. No
doubt, Republican leaders looked at a lawsuit as a way to get their base, which
loathes Obama, to the starting line. But why do it at all? Polls had already indicated
that the Republican base was already enthusiastic in voting in the fall. On the
other hand, Democrats have desperately been searching for ways to get their
voter base to the polls this fall. It occurs to me that the Republicans may
have just inadvertently handed their opponents a big stick.
The
Palins and other extreme right wingers in American politics have attempted to
get an impeachment movement off the ground, regardless of the fact that it
would have no hope of success. Obviously, there is a big difference between
impeaching a president and suing him. The former is a pipe dream that would
have no political support at the moment, whereas the latter has the full
support of the Republican establishment, who have moved matters forward in
Congress. Both ideas are unpopular with the ordinary American voter. If my
analysis is correct, the lawsuit, which the right-winger conservatives own,
could give the Republicans an even bigger headache than impeachment.
Politically,
this fall’s campaign will now see the Democrat candidates tie their opponents
to the waste of time and effort, not to mention cash that is this frivolous
lawsuit. The President would cause the Republicans an even bigger problem by
recalling Congress this August to get the current legislative program done and
expose the Republicans for the shilly-shallying, do-nothing group of spoilers they
have become.
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