I won’t be able to make his press conference later today, but I suppose the question now is whether Pat wants to draw up the articles of impeachment next year or serve as one of the jurors. He delivered a scathing indictment of the President, part of which is detailed here:
“President Obama has created a backdoor amnesty law for 15 million illegal aliens through an unlawful policy that circumvents Congress. The consequences and impact of this reckless action on the people of the United States is enormous.”
“Mr. Obama’s administration with its characterization of citizens as terrorists, creation of enemies’ lists, and the attack against state laws with tax payers’ financed litigation is beginning to make Richard Nixon look like a Boy Scout. Lawlessness and disrespect for justice are promoting the illegal alien agenda,” said Delegate McDonough.
It’s obvious Pat is a hardliner on immigration, as evidenced by his role in the recent SB167 petition drive. But it would be the longest of shots that President Obama would actually be impeached, and it’s not even certain that he’ll be in office if Pat is indeed elected since polls show a number of Republicans neck-and-neck with him at this stage in the game. (I know, that and $5 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.) Yet Pat “maintains that if he were a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives, he would initiate the articles of impeachment process.”
Perhaps it’s a good thing he’s not there, though, since Bill Clinton became the object of sympathy during his impeachment. And just like in the case of Slick Willie, if Obama is challenged in such a manner it’s a sure bet the press will be hounding the GOP for putting partisan politics above what’s best for the country and blaming the TEA Party for the whole situation. And it’s even harder to explain to a basically spoon-fed and ignorant American public how Obama is violating the Constitution with his “disrespect for the rule of law” (as McDonough puts it) than it was to maintain that Clinton’s impeachment was not about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky but the fact he committed perjury in front of a grand jury.
While I agree that both examples were egregious violations of the oath to uphold the Constitution, I’m not certain this is the hill we want to die on. Better to let the voting public speak next year and reject Obama based on his dismal economic record and being sorely out of touch with the people – after all, even an earthquake and impending hurricane weren’t enough to interrupt his round of golf yesterday. I’m sure Obama probably figured, “THAT’s why I missed that par putt on number four; it was the earth’s fault!” At least he didn’t blame Bush, right?
However, if Obama is miraculously returned to office and enough Republicans, including McDonough, are elected as well (admittedly, an extremely iffy scenario unless the electoral votes fall just the wrong way) then we may have something completely necessary, if only to stop the steamroller of Obama’s second-term agenda where he’ll essentially rule by fiat and ignore Congress. It would be a lot harder to undo the damage then.
Yet what this whole sequence doesn’t reveal is whether Pat will run for the Second Congressional District seat or Ben Cardin’s Senate seat – he obviously was careful enough to leave the door open for either case. My odds, though, remain at about 60-40 he goes for the U.S. Senate. And they stay at 100% that Pat is generally out to grab headlines; still, I have to admit he livens up the race at this early date pretty well.
