One of the great moments in sports is to attend a hockey game at the University of Wisconsin (UW). While Wisconsin fans are known for their over-the-top support of their football and basketball programs, this pales in comparison to the following of the UW hockey team. They are quite simply some of the most rabid fans in the world.
One of the traditions at a UW hockey game is the “Sieve Cheer.” This is the cheer given when the other team gives up a goal. It is designed to intimidate the other team and to humiliate the opposing goalie. It works! At first there is loud cheering for the goal. Then the stadium becomes deathly quiet. Suddenly, everyone in the stadium starts whispering “sieve…sieve…sieve,” slowly, softly and in perfect unison. You can hardly hear it at first; you just kind of feel the air move. But each time they whisper sieve, they whisper it a little louder. The chant builds and builds until the entire stadium is standing up screaming, “Sieve! Sieve! Sieve!” at the top of their lungs. It is a thing of beauty.
The point is that some words are just like the Sieve Cheer. When you hear them, you know something big is coming. In terms of a President of the United States, there is a very similar word. It is “impeachment.” This is rarely used. Only two Presidents in the history of the United States have ever been impeached: Andrew Johnson and William Jefferson Clinton. Both were acquitted. (Many people assume that Nixon was impeached, but that is not true. Nixon resigned because Republican Senators advised him that they could not support him if he was impeached.)
It is extremely rare for political opponents to use the word “impeachment” with regard to a sitting U.S. President. There were some extreme left radical Democrats who talked about impeachment with regard to George W. Bush, but this was never taken seriously, other than by Dennis Kucinich. Even the biased main stream media and liberal Democrats, including people like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, knew they had no grounds for impeaching George Bush.
But this week, Newt Gingrich used the word “impeachment” with regard to Barack Obama, and he was serious. I was stunned, because Mr. Gingrich is very bright and is a very serious man. I believe he chose this word carefully and deliberately.
Gingrich brought up impeachment with regard to the decision by the Obama administration to unilaterally decide that the Defense of Marriage Act is clearly unconstitutional. The issue is not whether you agree with this legislation, or not. The issue is whether the President of the United States has the authority to unilaterally decide the constitutionality of a law passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton. Gingrich did something brilliant. He explained this in terms that even the liberal left can understand. The following is from an interview with Newsmax.com:
“Imagine that Governor Palin had become president. Imagine that she had announced that Roe versus Wade in her view was unconstitutional and therefore the United States government would no longer protect anyone’s right to have an abortion because she personally had decided it should be changed. The news media would have gone crazy. The New York Times would have demanded her impeachment.”
First of all, he campaigned in favor of [the law]. He is breaking his word to the American people,” Gingrich says.
“Second, he swore an oath on the Bible to become president that he would uphold the Constitution and enforce the laws of the United States. He is not a one-person Supreme Court. The idea that we now have the rule of Obama instead of the rule of law should frighten everybody.
“The fact that the left likes the policy is allowing them to ignore the fact that this is a very unconstitutional act,” Gingrich said.
I doubt that anyone is going to immediate jump on the impeachment wagon. Republicans are terrified because of the fall-out from the Clinton fiasco. The liberal left and the Democratic Party only consider impeachment when a Republican is in office. But Gingrich makes a very strong point, and this is going to force a lot of people to take a serious look at this issue. Gingrich is clearly right. The question is whether anyone will do something about it.
Keep in mind some other important factors. Obama is likely to be out of office in about 18 months. As long as Republicans are confident he will lose, they are unlikely to take on the risk of launching an impeachment effort against another Democratic President. They are also more focused on cutting the budget and repealing Obamacare. In addition, the world is on fire, and things are bad enough without paralyzing the U.S. Presidency with the distraction of an impeachment trial. Obama is pathetically weak as it is. This would become worse if he were being impeached. If Obama is removed from office, Joe Biden becomes President of the United States. Biden would be required under the constitution to name a new Vice President, subject to confirmation by the Senate. That person would immediately become the favorite to be elected President in 2012. Republicans could lose a lot of sleep over that scenario. They already think they are going to run the table in 2012, and this could change everything.
I do not know where this will lead, but the word has been uttered by someone who cannot be ignored. The main stream media has to address the issue because they cannot ignore this type of charge from a man like Newt Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House. This is just like being at a UW hockey home game and hearing that first, ever so soft “Sieve.” You always wonder just how loud it is going to get.
TDM