Bill Maher challenges Republicans: Impeach Obama ‘so he can kick your ass a third time’

[DonViejo]

By Arturo Garcia
Saturday, May 17, 2014 0:06 EDT

Bill Maher closed Real Time on Friday by throwing a serious — “Rob Ford in rehab” serious, even — challenge to the Republican Party, daring conservatives to follow through on their threat to impreach President Barack Obama over the fatal September 2012 U.S. consulate bombing in Benghazi, Libya.

“When the Republicans impeached [Bill] Clinton, his approval ratings shot up 10 [percentage] points, to 73,” Maher argued. “Obama’s approval is at 41. He could use a little of that impeachment mojo. So go ahead, haters. Make Benghazi your big issue, please. Put Barack Obama back on the ballot in 2014, so he can kick your ass a third time.”

The fact that Republicans are seizing on the attack as a talking point again, Maher said, meant that the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as “Obamacare”) was working.

“Logic, however, not as much,” Maher said. “Because if you ask (conservatives) to explain what the Benghazi crime is, they still can’t. It’s just some blather about ‘Don’t you see? If it was terrorists, instead of what he said, act of terror, then Obama is weak and Mitt Romney gets to be retroactive president.’”

But logical arguments don’t matter in today’s GOP, Maher explained, attributing their rhetoric to the party catching syphilis in 1994, leaving it untreated and reducing it to “the drooling and frothing stage today.”

“It’s like trying to relate to someone who’s tripping when you’re not,” Maher said. “Sorry, we don’t see the spiders.”

Watch Maher’s commentary, as posted online on Friday, below.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/17/bill-maher-challenges-republicans-impeach-obama-so-he-can-kick-your-as-a-third-time/

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Posted with permission

[Jim Lane]

1. I thought he meant put Obama on the ballot in 2016.

If Obama leaves office before January 20, 2015, and Biden finishes the term, then it's more than half a term so it counts against Biden's two-term limit.

Does it work the other way? Suppose the Republicans were to remove Obama from office before January 20. Does that mean that his less-than-half-a-term would not count, and he'd be eligible to run in 2016?

Not that this question has any practical relevance, but reading this post made me think of it.

[hobbit709]

2. The Repukes have the votes in the House to impeach him but they need 2/3 in the Senate

to convict and that will never happen.

[Jim Lane]

6. Of course, I agree, but wouldn't it be funny if it boomeranged?

Possible Democratic nominees in 2016 include Clinton and Biden (both kind of old), Cuomo (conservaDem who'd repel the base), Warren (probably not running), Sanders (also too old and a Socialist to boot), and a second tier of people with little national name recognition at this point.

So, after Obama is impeached and convicted, Biden becomes President, and it takes the Republicans a while to conjure up some pretext for impeaching him. Meanwhile, they've handed us the perfect answer to our 2016 problem: Obama runs a third time, attracting votes from some independents who might otherwise prefer the Republican candidate but who are outraged at the whole impeachment folly. He'd probably get a bigger win than he did in 2008 or 2012.

This whole scenario is about as likely as 10 million people coming to DC wearing tricornered hats, but it appeals to my warped sense of humor.

[former9thward]

3. No elected Republican leaders have talked about impeachment.

The only place I ever see impeachment mentioned is on DU and now Bill Maher.

[Jim Lane]

4. Certainly they have.

See, for example, "Meet The Republicans Who Want To Impeach Obama Over Gun Regulations" from Think Progress, January 16, 2013. Named there are Congressmembers Steve Stockman, Trey Radel, and Louie Gohmert.

There are probably others in Congress, plus many, many more if we include state legislators.

[former9thward]

5. I said Republican leaders.

None of those guys are. You can always find someone who says anything to get some media attention.

[Jim Lane]

7. OK, I was taking you to mean any Republican elected official.

I agree with you that there's no point in mentioning bloggers and WND columnists and talk-radio hosts and the like, but one would expect at least some minimal sense of reality from a Republican who's manage to win a general election.

You're right that Boehner and McConnell haven't gone that route. Nevertheless, if some inconceivable cataclysm in the Senate this fall were to make impeachment and conviction a real possibility, I wouldn't want to have to rely on the integrity and good sense of Boehner and McConnell to prevent it from happening. They are nominally the leaders but I don't think they'd stand up to the Gohmerts and Cruzes on something like this.