Impeachment: A game the GOP cannot afford to play

Thank heaven all major policy issues have been solved.

We have plenty of energy, all potholes are fixed, and the military budget has been firmly settled. We know where every dollar of the infrastructure money is going, and the seaports and harbors and airports of the nation are safe, secure, and thriving.  We’ve solved for all immigration issues, avoided the government shutdown, and we have a fair and honest tax rate that everyone can live with. We’re living in some financial version of utopia.

No? Did I miss something?

Then why on earth is the House of Representatives dropping everything to explore an impeachment of the President of the United States?

To be completely honest, I have never expected much from this Congress. The prospects for the 118^th have never been high for anyone on either side of the aisle. If you love the drama, you were waiting on tenterhooks for Speaker McCarthy to decide whether or not to move forward with this ludicrous farce.

I was not.

I’ve been watching McCarthy for a few years and there was never much doubt that once he figured out that he could not have it both ways, he'd cave to the crazies. The centrist Speaker was willing to sign away his soul to the likes of Marjorie Taylor Green in order to win the chair in the first place. And when it came to selling out the GOP majority in the House to hang onto his hollow office for a few more months, why not?

I cannot think of a collection of nitwits more deserving to be dropped into the minority than the right-wing end of the Republican party in the House. It’s really just a formality. They‘ve behaved as though they were in the minority since November 2022, playing the Greek chorus in some bizarre version of Medea, starring someone who does not even hold office anymore: Donald Trump. But Mr. Trump wants this. He has threatened to undermine anyone in the party who stands in the way of his payback for the equally self-destructive and politically inept Democratic efforts to oust him in the same manner. 

Writing in Politico Nightly, Mahtesian and McHugh go the heart of the matter: if the GOP House wastes its time trying to impeach Biden over the alleged crimes of his son, nearly every GOP House member in a competitive district will be in play. Where the red tide actually worked – where Republicans won tight races because of Biden-exhaustion. The current will likely flow in the opposite direction in 2024. Given that they currently have a razor’s edge majority of 5 seats, this is a very dangerous game.

House Republicans are already facing mighty long odds in the coming election anyway. The abortion issue, a strong economy, and a do-nothing Congress conspire to sabotage what little edge they may have. Adding this impeachment nonsense to it serves only two purposes: to allow McCarthy to (maybe) survive for another 18 months, and the sweaty, crassly self-indulgent, destructive vengefulness of Mr. Trump.

For Republican Congress-folks sitting in seats with a 60-80% GOP majority, it’s easy to play this game. They retain Mr. Trump’s endorsement, they feed the sharks in the diving well, and avoid the hard work of real policymaking. But for the folks teetering on the edge of a 52-48 win in New York from 2022, delicately balanced on a coalition of independents and disaffected Democrats, the news could not be worse. They had planned on arguments of constituency service, better economics, and restraint in regulation. Now they have to somehow try to defend a maniacal onslaught based on the President’s son’s laptop.

If it’s even that. The House GOP has already told us that they have found no evidence of Presidential wrongdoing.

The wretchedness of this U.S. Congress cannot be overstated and the sad thing here is that it’s not even going to be good TV.

Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College.  He is also a columnist for The Ledger.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Impeachment: A game the GOP cannot afford to play