House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is on the warpath. First, she suggested that FBI Director James Comey might not be in the right job and could be a 2016 casualty should Clinton win. Now, she says that Republicans can’t impeach Hillary Clinton because that would be unconstitutional or something (via Washington Examiner):
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi denounced Republican chatter about impeaching Hillary Clinton as "a brazen attempt" to defy the results of the presidential election."In addition to there being no grounds for impeachment to begin with, moving to impeach President Hillary Clinton for alleged activities from before the election would be a brazen attempt to nullify the vote of the American people, outside our constitutional framework and destructive to the Framers' intent," the California Democrat said in a Thursday statement.
Well, theoretically Congress can dictate what high crimes and misdemeanors mean in an impeachment proceeding, but let’s not get too crazy here. Even Republicans admit saying that it’s either not going to happen, or such talk, is premature. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer that impeachment would be on the table should Clinton win the election and the FBI’s investigations into her email server or the foundation lead to indictments against the former first lady.
Yet, on impeachment, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said that’s not going to happen (via The Hill):
Some top Republicans have floated the idea of possibly impeaching a President Clinton in recent days, including House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and vulnerable Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).Issa, the former House Oversight Committee chairman, dismissed such talk as hyperbole.
"OK, I'm gonna say, be the adult in the room and say, 'Calm down, back off, it's not gonna happen,' " Issa said Wednesday on the "Brett Winterble Show" on 760 KFMB San Diego radio, in a clip posted Thursday by CNN’s KFile.
"The fact is we have impeached and removed from office nine federal judges in our history, no members of the executive branch, not a president, not a vice president, not a cabinet officer, so floating that word is usually a fairly reckless thing,” he said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) also said that such talk was premature (via Huffington Post):
Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, downplayed some of that talk in a Tuesday interview with “The Wells Report” on 660 AM The Answer.“Well, I think that’s premature myself, to be talking about that because of course she hasn’t been elected or sworn into office,” Cornyn said. “And unless there is some additional evidence that the FBI director and the [Justice Department] would take to a grand jury, then she is not likely to be convicted of a crime.”
Folks, if nothing comes of these investigations, we’re going to have to stomach four years of Hillary Rodham Clinton. It’s going to be terrible, but hopefully she’ll squander what little political capital she would accrue if she does win on something predictable for liberals to fall flat on their face on - like gun control, and then we find someone who can beat her in 2020. Don’t get me wrong she’s eminently beatable now, and Trump is closing in on her—but we have to also think about how to beat her on The Hill, besides this hail Mary pass of impeachment talk, which in the absence of an actual indictment, would spell political disaster for Republicans, many of whom I suspect would try to work with her on some issues. Or at least attempt to work with a Clinton 2.0 presidency. At the same time, it's hilarious that Pelosi is concerned about maintaining the constitutional vision of our Framers.