Support from an Unlikely Source

I was never a fan of President Clinton, and found him to be an embarassment at times.  But I actively opposed the impeachment proceedings at the time.  It was not that I liked what he had done - and I would welcome his punishment in the appropriate venue at the appropriate time.  But impeachment was neither.  In my view, impeachment proceedings require bi-partisan support, which did not exist.  If you pursue impeachment without active support of both sides of the aisle, you are playing politics and you will pay a price the next time the other guys have the majority. 

According to a NewsMax report today, Senator Obama agrees with me. 

And he is right.

My source: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/6/29/82249.shtml?s=al&promo_code=3685-1
Friday, June 29, 2007 8:21 a.m. EDT

Obama Opposes Bush, Cheney Impeachment

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he opposes impeachment of either President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Illinois Democrat said he would not back such a move although he has been distressed by the "loose ethical standards, the secrecy and incompetence" of a "variety of characters" in the administration.

"There's a way to bring an end to those practices, you know: vote the bums out," the presidential candidate said, without naming Bush and Cheney. "That's how our system is designed."

The term for Bush and Cheney ends on Jan. 20, 2009.

  The senator, a Harvard law school graduate and former lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago, said impeachment should not be used as a standard political tool.

"I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave breeches, and intentional breeches of the president's authority," he said.

"I believe if we began impeachment proceedings we will be engulfed in more of the politics that has made Washington dysfunction," he added. "We would once again, rather than attending to the people's business, be engaged in a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, nonstop circus."

Obama spoke at a weekly constituent breakfast he and fellow Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin sponsor. He was asked about impeachment.