There's scattered talk of the House Republicans impeaching Barack Obama. So far, it looks like just another thing that's said just to fire up the folks in what Jon Stewart calls "Crazy Base World." Claiming they could prove he was born in Kenya has kind of lost its power so they have to come up with something…and who knows? Some of the things that were said to appease that group, like shutting down the government, have gotten out of anyone's control and actually happened. Lately, the threat seems to go something like this: "We absolutely loathe and hate everything about this 'president' and he'd damn well better not do anything to make us hate him more."
Joe Conason reminds us that the drive to impeach Bill Clinton started almost from the moment of his election, long before he'd ever met Monica Lewinsky. It empowered and enriched a lot of people who started the crusade to impeach Clinton before they even had a clue what the High Crime or Misdemeanor might be. A lot of those people are still around, still craving that empowerment and enrichment.