Who are becoming one of the greatest boosts to Democrat Party fundraising? [icopyright one button toolbar] Republicans talking about impeaching President Barack Obama. It has become clear from a slew of news stories documenting the infusion of money into happily-receiving Democratic Party coffers. And NBC’s Chuck Todd, who was one of the country’s best political analysts before he joined NBC, says GOPers talking about impeachment are playing into White House hands:
As Todd and his colleagues who do the must-read-for-political-junkies First Read noted some days ago, the impeachment issue is now a cravenly cynical one:
On Friday, a top White House aide said it was possible Republicans could impeach President Obama if he decided to take executive action on immigration. Days later, on Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner fired back at this impeachment chatter: “Listen, it’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.” But let’s be honest here: Both sides — Democrats and Republicans — believe the impeachment talk is good for motivating their base. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says it’s raked in more than $3 million in online donations since Thursday with solicitations like this one from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (“Boehner is planning a vote to sue the president. The House of Representatives has never sued a sitting President in all of U.S. history. And if they do it, impeachment may very well be the next step”). Democrats also hope the impeachment talk can force a replay of 1998, when the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton backfired against the GOP that midterm season. As for Boehner and House Republicans, they’re being disingenuous, too. The GOP base loves the impeachment talk (see Sarah Palin, Allen West, Drudge, and the rhetoric from some sitting House members). Indeed, Boehner’s lawsuit seems intended to tap into that conservative impeachment enthusiasm — but without going all the way to impeachment. It’s impeachment-lite.
Now Republicans, some conservative bloggers, and talk show hosts are using the line that impeachment talk was actually started by the Democrats and (of course!) Obama.
But Doug Mataconis documents here how the initial and biggestinitial push on this issue has come from the Republican — that means not the White House, not the DNC, not Daily Kos — side.
What is most notable here:
1. Dismiss her all you want, but when Sarah Palin starts a polarizing, demonizing, politically risky narrative it spreads in the conservative corporate political media and political blogs and snowballs. It then is picked up by the national media. The problem here is that Palin is helping her party shoot itself in the foot.
2. The way this issue has backfired on Republicans in terms of being a boon to Democratic Party fundraising must make it awfully tempting for some in the White House to come down on the side of going big, bold in flashy when Obama decides what executive action to take on immigration now that Republican House members have shown that their house true leader is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and their intellectual inspirations seem to be Rep. Steve King and Rep. Michelle Bachmann.
3. The fact that the line is being successfully pushed despite the facts (read Mataconis again) once again shows how facts actually mean little in American politics: it’s a matter of picking a political mantra, saying it over and over and many of those in your party will pick it up and it’ll be reinforced by constant repetition in the big-bucks-making-and-big-ratings-getting conservative entertainment media.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.