The Seeds of Impeachment
Every mighty tree that ever grew began as a seed, which buried in the soil sprouted a tap root that began to spread into branches of that tap root. Then, its sprout penetrated upward, the ground’s surface, and likewise began to grow into a trunk which sprouted branches, until the tree dwarfed the seed of its origin.
In a similar matter, every time in our history that the “tree” of impeachment, or a potential of impeachment grew, it started as a “seed”, covered up in dirt and began to sprout the roots of discontent, and the branches of dishonesty bore the fruit of impeachment.
Forty years ago, a 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee grew into a scandal of cover-up that caused Richard Nixon to resign his presidency. The articles of impeachment that had been drawn up had nothing to do with the actual break-in, and everything to do with the lengths to which Nixon and members of his administration to cover up, and obstruct the investigation appertaining thereto.
Sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton was impeached, on two counts of perjury, and one count each of abuse of power and obstruction of justice, which grew out of the seeds of the Whitewater real estate investment scandals, sexual harassment of Paula Jones, and ultimately, fellatio performed on the President in the Oval Office by Monica Lewinsky. The actual articles of impeachment had nothing to do with semen on Lewinsky’s dress, and everything to do with the fact that Clinton perjured himself in a deposition to a grand jury and he attempted to obstruct justice in the investigation of Whitewater.
By comparison to Nixon’s Watergate break-in, and Clinton’s Whitewater investment scandal/ sexual peccadillos- comparatively small seeds in terms of their effects on the American public, the Obama administration has engaged in the process of planting numerous, much larger seeds that are just beginning to sprout tap roots in what might well grow into a veritable grove of impeachment trees.
The Veterans Health Administration, in their false record keeping and delays of services, those being systematically covered up, that have caused and continue to cause actual deaths of veterans awaiting medical services, is but one of these trees.
The ATF gun walking scandal, also known as Fast and Furious, which resulted in the death of US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, has already resulted in formal charges of contempt for Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, by the House of Representatives, for failing to provide Congress with subpoenaed documents.
Then there is the Benghazi Raid, and the failure of Hillary Clinton’s State Department to provide adequate security to the consulate in Libya, that resulted in the deaths of our Ambassador, Christopher Stevens and three others, and the attempt to fabricate a false narrative of a video to hide both the President’s and Secretary’s culpability in their refusal to provide adequate security before the raid, and rescue operations during the raid, all because Obama was in the midst of a re-election campaign whose narrative was that the “Arab spring was a success and Al-Quada is on the run”, both of which were not true. These three scandals, unlike Nixon’s and Clinton’s scandals, have actually resulted in the deaths of Americans.
And then there is the IRS targeting of conservative organizations applying for 501(c)(4) tax exemptions, originally and falsely blamed on rogue operatives in the IRA Cincinnati office, which have now been traced to the IRS Headquarters in Washington. The former Commissioner of the IRS, Doug Shulman, went to the White House 138 times during his tenure- when the targeting was going on but, in Congressional testimony, said that he could only recall an Easter egg hunt as the reason for one of these visits- and could not remember why he went there on the other 137 occasions. Then two years after Lois Lerner’s e-mails were subpoenaed by Congress, these e-mails suddenly have vanished into thin air, due to a hard drive crash, and the subsequent disposal of the computer’s hard drive conveniently waylaying and preventing investigation into e-mails the Lerner had sent to government entities outside the Treasury Department- e-mails which might otherwise have revealed IRS communication to other government entities, like OSHA and the FBI, which also launched investigations into businesses run by taxpayers who supported these same conservative organizations. Also noteworthy was the fact that seven other IRS officials, being tied to the IRS abuse scandals, also somehow had the ‘misfortune” of hard drive crashes and lost e-mails. All the while, Obama insists that there is not smidgen of corruption in this arena.
Despite the fact that the major media has refused to acknowledge these scandals as anything but phony scandals and Republican partisan witch hunts, and despite the efforts of Democratic House members who toe the same line for the Obama administration, these scandals are very real, in some cases deadly, and, in the case of the IRS, affect thousands of Americans, both in and outside our government. Worse yet, there are other instances of either incompetence or outright dishonesty, that are threatening the ability of President Obama to lead our nation in very troubled times, both here and around the world. Even some of Obama’s supporters in the media, cognizant of his declining approval numbers, are beginning to see that his ability to lead the country has all but ended. Such a diminishment of his moral authority, left unchecked, will ultimately result in public outcry for further investigations and impeachment, which can be accelerated with a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate in November.
As these scandals grow branches, and begin to bear ill fruit, coupled with the stagnant economy and troubles abroad, Obama is unwittingly and steadily fertilizing the seeds of his own demise, and the danger is that all of us will be forced to dine upon the fruits of his own design.
-Drew Nickell, 20 June 2014
©2014, by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved