Alan Keyes claims that Rep. Michele Bachmann’s plan to sue President Obama doesn’t go far enough and may actually aid Obama’s “dictatorship.”
Instead, he wants the Tea Party darling — who last year accused Obama of “committing impeachable offenses” — to join his Jesus Christ-endorsed campaign to get congressional candidates to pledge to support the impeachment and removal of the president.
“Bachmann and her colleagues should take the impeachment/removal pledge, and campaign as hard as they know how to get every like-minded Senator and Representative they can to do likewise,” Keyes writes. “Combined with an energetic grassroots mobilization of voters demanding that candidates for either house of Congress take the pledge, their campaign would help to make the 2014 election an effective vote of no-confidence in Obama’s lawless, unconstitutional administration.”
One problem with his approach, however, is that Bachmann is not running for re-election.
Let’s assume, for instance, that Bachmann and her colleagues succeed in passing the legislation they seek. (All right, it’s unlikely given the fact that the Democrats presently control the U.S. Senate. But “for the sake of the argument,” as they say, let’s ignore that difficulty.) Let’s further assume that their case gets to the Supreme Court, which issues an opinion supporting their view that the President’s actions are unconstitutional.
What happens next? Perhaps Obama rolls over, bows to the Supreme Court, and retracts his executive orders. That might happen, or it might not. Let’s say it doesn’t happen. Instead, Obama rejects the Court’s view. To support his stand, he argues that his actions are necessary in order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare of the country.
Let’s say he further argues that, by failing to pass laws essential for achieving those ends, Congress has endangered the nation, exacerbating a serious situation which, without his timely preventive measures, threatens to plunge the country into a dire state of national emergency.
…The problem is that the whole sequence of events would set a precedent for successful dictatorship that Obama (and the elitist faction he serves) would abuse for the remainder of his occupation of the White House. It would also directly confirm, for better or worse, the ultimate impotence of the judicial branch (especially when dealing with disputes between the other branches), which Hamilton’s lucid thinking foreshadows.
…
Bachmann and her colleagues need to think this through. They need to ask themselves the key strategic question: If we succeed in getting a favorable opinion from the Supreme Court (which is no foregone conclusion) what do we do if Obama simply refuses, on constitutional grounds, to enforce it?
…
When you think it through, building these impeachment/removal majorities is the only constitutional way to “force” the executive to respect the Constitution. The Courts can’t do it. And even the people can’t do it, constitutionally, except at election time.This is precisely the thinking that led me to propose the impeachment/removal strategy for the 2014 election. Instead of spinning their wheels in an ineffectual appeal to a judicial branch that is ultimately powerless to enforce its opinions, Bachmann and her colleagues should take the impeachment/removal pledge, and campaign as hard as they know how to get every like-minded Senator and Representative they can to do likewise. [emphasis his]
Combined with an energetic grassroots mobilization of voters demanding that candidates for either house of Congress take the pledge, their campaign would help to make the 2014 election an effective vote of no-confidence in Obama’s lawless, unconstitutional administration. Instead of risking a precedent for ambitious, lawless dictatorship, it would set a precedent that restores government of, by, and for the people, through elected officials honestly pledged to represent them. Given the gravity of the present crisis, this would be nothing short of saving America’s liberty, for us and our posterity. Will Bachmann and her colleagues rise to the occasion?
