Thread: Republican Disingenuousness

One of the more piquant passages in the interview that Mark Warren and I did with former President Bill Clinton, which appears in this month's production of Esquire: The Magazine is this part right at the top where Clinton talks about a change of heart experienced by a former GOP congresscritter named Bob Inglis, who lost in a primary in 2010 because he said disrespectful things about Glenn Beck but who, in the giddy years of the late 1990's, wielded his pitchfork most enthusiastically in the cause of impeaching Clinton, an effort for which he recently apologized, according to the former president, who nonetheless told us:

I had a fascinating meeting with Bob Inglis the other day. Bob Inglis was an extremely conservative Republican congressman from South Carolina. He was a three-term-pledge guy in the nineties.... So he came to me and he said, "I just want you to know, when you got elected, I hated you. And I asked to be on the Judiciary Committee in 1993, because a bunch of us had already made up our minds that no matter what you did or didn't do, we were going to find some way to impeach you. We hated you. You had no right to be president."

Context and the Grover Norquist "Impeach Obama" Fantasy - Esquire

Charles Pierce, the author of this article, goes onto explain how Jefferson and Madison didn't like the provisions for impeachment and felt they could be abused for political reasons. And then Pierce quotes Grover Norquist talking about impeaching Obama if he allows the bush tax cuts to expire. Then Pierce states that if the Republicans end up with majorities in both houses of Congress and Obama is re-elected, they're likely to try it again. It wouldn't surprise me at all since a lot of Republicans have an irrational hatred of Obama just as they had of Clinton. Why I don't know since both of them make damn good Republican presidents.

I can't remember where I heard it but someone recently said that impeachment absent high crimes or misdemeanors is actually an attempted coup. so if anyone should be considered a potential enemy of the united states, it's norquist.

freewheeling talk about impeachment is taken way too lightly in the US these days. I think it should be deemed as similar to loose talk about doing violence to the president. it's corrosive to the body politic.

Originally Posted by highway234

I can't remember where I heard it but someone recently said that impeachment absent high crimes or misdemeanors is actually an attempted coup. so if anyone should be considered a potential enemy of the united states, it's norquist.

freewheeling talk about impeachment is taken way too lightly in the US these days. I think it should be deemed as similar to loose talk about doing violence to the president. it's corrosive to the body politic.

You're right. It should be restricted to actual serious crimes. Otherwise it is quite corrosive.

Originally Posted by Babba

Context and the Grover Norquist "Impeach Obama" Fantasy - Esquire

Charles Pierce, the author of this article, goes onto explain how Jefferson and Madison didn't like the provisions for impeachment and felt they could be abused for political reasons. And then Pierce quotes Grover Norquist talking about impeaching Obama if he allows the bush tax cuts to expire. Then Pierce states that if the Republicans end up with majorities in both houses of Congress and Obama is re-elected, they're likely to try it again. It wouldn't surprise me at all since a lot of Republicans have an irrational hatred of Obama just as they had of Clinton. Why I don't know since both of them make damn good Republican presidents.

Funny you should mention "an irrational hatred."

Originally Posted by highway234

I can't remember where I heard it but someone recently said that impeachment absent high crimes or misdemeanors is actually an attempted coup.

The PPACA is a high crime.

Originally Posted by Dutch

Funny you should mention "an irrational hatred."

Those are well known right wing plants.

Originally Posted by Dutch

Funny you should mention "an irrational hatred."

Hey, I have no doubt that there were people who truly hated Bush and opposed him simply because of that hatred. The same is true on the other side in relation to Clinton and Obama. But don't pretend that there aren't people who hate Obama and oppose him and everything he does just because of that hatred without any rational thought behind it. This also reminds me of the fact that Hillary was despised by some Republicans in congress and they fully expected her to be Satan's spawn incarnate when she arrived in the Senate, but found that in person she's actually quite likeable and found she was easy to work with.

Originally Posted by Babba

Hey, I have no doubt that there were people who truly hated Bush and opposed him simply because of that hatred. The same is true on the other side in relation to Clinton and Obama. But don't pretend that there aren't people who hate Obama and oppose him and everything he does just because of that hatred without any rational thought behind it. This also reminds me of the fact that Hillary was despised by some Republicans in congress and they fully expected her to be Satan's spawn incarnate when she arrived in the Senate, but found that in person she's actually quite likeable and found she was easy to work with.

Awww, c'mon baba. You're just being kind. According to good ol' devil these are well known right wing plants. . You can talk all you want about people who hate mr obama but all I have to do is to point out your compatriot devil 505 as a prime example of just what you are saying exists on the right. Honestly, doesn't it get a bit tedious?