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Could a Democratic Congress ruin a Republican president’s tenure?
Sure, if the Republican Congress “sues” our current Democratic president. Turnabout is fair play. But the kind of childishness Republicans have been engaged in damages the country, not just a few misguided politicians.
Vox analyzes the possibility of Boehner’s suit against Obama succeeding and what the outcome could be. Some emphasis added.
The specifics of Boehner’s suit focus only on a very narrow issue: whether or not the courts will order Obama to implement the employer mandate. So let’s focus on the broader question of what will happen if the courts decide that the House does in fact have standing to sue the president. Overall, the power of the presidency would be weakened, and the power of Congress and especially the courts would be strengthened.
In recent decades, conservatives have tended to be suspicious of loosening standing requirements, and have argued instead for restraining the judicial role. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a Supreme Court dissent last year that the consequences of loosening standing requirements could be vast. Scalia darkly imagined a system “in which Congress and the Executive can pop immediately into court, in their institutional capacity, whenever the President refuses to implement a statute he believes to be unconstitutional, and whenever he implements a law in a manner that is not to Congress’s liking.” He added, “Placing the Constitution’s entirely anticipated political arm wrestling into permanent judicial receivership does not do the system a favor.”But overall, those who think the president has grown too powerful and unchecked in recent years would probably be happy if the courts placed a new check on executive power. A favorable ruling for Boehner would likely make life somewhat more difficult for any president in power. For instance, one could imagine a Democratic Congress suing a Republican president for improperly implementing Obamacare, or for refusing to enforce environmental laws. …Vox
And one could imagine the current flood of resentment politics created by Republicans drowning democracy in a few short years. A more courageous and mature Republican party would have targeted one — or two — of their own. The imperial presidency of Bush and Cheney was far more damaging to the system and to the American people. What they want to sue Obama for is his achievements, not his failures.
Trying to discredit Obama is just plain childish. A better choice: prolonged rest and rehab for the Republican party while the Democrats spend a decade or so rebuilding what the right has destroyed — including the stability of America’s economy, its infrastructure, and of course our self-respect.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
graphic via shutterstock.com