Washington, DC, and the nation abounds with rumors of impeachment for Obama. Everyone also knows that any impeachment bill that gets out of the House will be killed by Harry Reid in the Senate.

Or, will it? Dems, mainly those in the House and Senate imperiled at the polls by Obama’s dictatorial Executive Orders, may, in fear of their positions, agree to impeachment and the Senate trial.

Paul Ryan has declared Obama has not committed any ‘high crime’ sufficient for impeachment. He and others equate ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors‘ as it is written in the Constitution, with civil crimes, like theft, murder and extortion committed by the Hoi Polloi.

Not so, Mr. Ryan. For impeachment, ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors‘ means whatever the Congress says it is. President Andrew Johnson was nearly impeached for firing one of his cabinet secretaries. Congress can use almost any issue to impeach a President. All they need are the votes. In Obama’s case, his failure to uphold his oath of office by failing to secure our borders, is sufficient for impeachment.

The possible charges against Obama are many. Some accuse him of failing to uphold his oath of office. Failing to secure our borders is one example. His flagrant use of Executive Orders, many designed specifically to by-pass Congressional approval, is another. His attempts to infringe upon religious freedom in violation of the 1st Amendment adds to the list of acts that could be used for impeachment.

A number of years ago, I posted some notes I’d made from Thomas Wood’s book, “33 Questions about American History You’re not Supposed to Ask.” In Wood ‘s book, one chapter was about the rise of the Imperial Presidency. The method used by presidents to create that Imperial Presidency was Executive Orders.

We can thank Teddy Roosevelt for the proliferation of Executive Orders.

What is an Execute Order? An Executive Order is a directive to those departments of the Executive branch of government. Initially, it was the act of implementing legislation passed by Congress. However, in some cases, Orders were written that were not supported by preceding acts of Congress. During the early years of our republic, those orders were submitted to Congress requesting concurrence, i.e., ex post facto Congressional approval of the Executive Order. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Presidents were extremely reluctant to issue an Executive Order being cognizant that Congress could subsequently reverse and not approve the order. This trend continued through the Civil War until the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt.

It was TR who pioneered rule by executive order as a governing style among American chief executives. Many Americans rightly howled during the 1990s when Clinton aid Paul Begala famously said of executive orders, “Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool.” But Clinton, who once called Theodore Roosevelt his favorite Republican president, was only exercising a power that TR had made a major feature of the presidential office early in the century.

…

To appreciate the transformation that occurred in American government under TR, consider the number of executive orders issued by the presidents of the late 19th century. Presidents Hayes and Garfield issued none. Arthur issued 3, Grover Cleveland (first term) 6, Benjamin Harrison 4, Cleveland (second term) 71, McKinley 51. TR issued 1,006.— Crucis’ Court, July 21, 2009.

The current push for impeachment is Obama’s excesses in issuing Executive Orders that violate the Constitution by by-passing Congress. The use of Executive Orders by Obama, or EOs as some call them, is the usurpation of power granted solely to Congress, not the Executive branch of our government.

Ted Cruz, according to a Washington Post article, says the illegal use of EOs to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens is sufficient to impeach Obama.

Cruz: It’s about executive power – WaPo: “The fate of a Republican proposal to address a brewing immigration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border was cast into doubt Wednesday after a tea party senator lobbied against it to House members. The effort by Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who made his pitch to a group of House Republicans in a closed-door evening meeting, marked another direct shot at attempts by Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants arriving from Central America…’The only way to stop the border crisis is to stop Obama’s amnesty,’ Cruz said in a statement. ‘It is disappointing the border security legislation unveiled today does not include language to end Obama’s amnesty. Congress cannot hope to solve this problem without addressing the fundamental cause of it.’” — FOXNewsletter, July 31, 2014.

But just who is it that is talking the most about impeachment? It is the democrats. They are using impeachment as a fundraising tool.

THE PARTY OF IMPEACHMENT
“You bet we’re going to run on a Congress that is just obsessed with lawsuits, suing the President, talking about impeaching him, instead of solutions for the middle class, talking about jobs and infrastructure. You bet that we’re going to ask people to support us based on that contrast.” – DCCC Chairman Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y. told CNN Wednesday To wit – Washington Examiner: “Just as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stepped onto the House floor to blast the lawsuit as ‘another Republican effort to pander to the most radical right-wing voters at taxpayer expense,’ the House fundraising arm sent out an email from Pelosi asking for donations ranging from $5 to $250 or more, to ‘support the president.’” Ummmm… – Daily Caller: “In a speech on the floor of the House Wednesday, Texas U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee claimed that Democrats never sought to impeach President George W. Bush. Not only is that claim false, but Jackson-Lee actually co-sponsored a 2008 bill to do just that and spoke in at least one House committee hearing in support of the effort.” — FOXNewsletter, July 31, 2014.

The most telling quote came from Judge Andrew Napolitano. “The choice is between two more years of government by decree or two years of prosecution. It is a choice the president has imposed upon us all.” It is time to end government by decree. Taking back the entire Congress in 2014 if the first step.