Did you notice? The GOP-controlled House of Representatives last night voted to commence an impeachment inquiry against President Biden. Why? Well, there’s not really evidence of a crime so far — but Republicans are sure something’s there. Right? Right?
Whatever.
The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky sees opportunity here. His take: “This Impeachment Will Do More to Re-Elect Biden Than Anything Biden Could Do Himself”:
These people are disgusting. And next November, they’ll learn that the American people see through them. I’m old enough to remember how badly the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton backfired against the Republicans. At least then, they could point to a semblance of wrongdoing—though it was something more distasteful than criminal. Today, they have nothing. And the American people, outside of Kerrville and Joplin and Twin Falls, know it.
Bring this impeachment on. It will fill the news, expose these cranks, reveal their profound cynicism—and do more to reelect Joe Biden than anything Biden himself could do.
I’m not sure that’s right.
For one thing, the impeachment inquiry isn’t filling the news. At this hour on the NYT website, the story is below pieces about fighting in Gaza, Donald Trump’s fraud trial in New York, the possibility of a “soft landing” for the economy and … something about hair loss influencers. Really.
The nation doesn’t seem to be rapt with attention.
I’m old enough to remember Bill Clinton’s impeachment, too. One thing about the backlash it produced — it happened at a time when presidential impeachments were novel. The last one before that occurred more than 100 years before.
Now, they’re a regular occurrence. And nothing ever comes of them, thanks to the Constitutional requirement that two-thirds of the Senate most vote for a conviction. It’s a lot of sound and fury, signifying not much at all.
So my guess is that Republicans are conducting an impeachment inquiry because their base expects them to. A few GOPers might even think they’re advancing some righteous cause.
But everybody else? They might shrug, recognizing the whole thing as theater that has little to do with, well, anything important. I don’t think it’ll make a difference.
Maybe it would be different if there was actual evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor by Joe Biden. But Tomasky is right that — so far — the president’s “only known ‘crime’ has been to make the occasional bad judgment in defense of his deeply troubled son.”
And maybe the nothingness of it all is the point for Republicans. If everybody gets impeached, then do Trump’s impeachments really matter? It is, in its own cynical way, an attempt to absolve the sins of a man who inspired an insurrection. That’s wrong. I’m just not sure voters will care.