The Republican Impeachment trap.

So unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the next Congress will be fully republican controlled.

Which is ironic, because it looks like the first major problem facing the new Congress is going to be Republican voters.

A poll that came out yesterday survived voters on their opinion of impeaching Obama for any reason.

Nationwide, 69% said their was absolutely no reason to consider impeaching Obama.

BUT  among just republicans....50% said Obama needs to be impeached. And among the Tea Party faction of the GOP, 64% said impeach him.

And well thats real bad news for the new Republican Congress.

You see for years now Republicans have floated the idea of impeaching the president.

For example about a year ago the GOP held a close door meeting expressly for discussing that possibility. as one of the participants put it

“We’ve also talked about the I-word, impeachment, which I don’t think would get past the Senate in the current climate. . . . Is there anything else we can do?”

Before that the guy Obama beat in 2008 said that as it related to Syria

"Nor will there be American boots on the ground because there would be an impeachment of the president if they did that.”

and so on and so one.

Impeaching Obama first picked up steam in 2009 after the stimulus and Obamacare were passed.
People preaching it at the time suffered under the false impression that impeaching Obama would automatically repeal any bills he'd signed....and thats not how it works.

But despite eventually getting that fact straightened out the ferver among republicans never went away.

Now of course up till now it never mattered. As John Boehner pointed out to justify his lawsuit of the president last year, Impeachment didnt matter, because without Republican control of the senate they couldnt actually remove Obama from office. And to be fair to the speaker he was far from the first to used that justification not to impeach.

But now we have a republican senate, so clearly the first thing they are going to do is impeach obama right?

No actually. Because they cant. And for a reason so simple I need only 4 letters to explain it

MATH

Pure basic simple math.

The Constitution requires a 2/3rds majority to remove the president from office.

No matter the outcome of the two pending senate races the GOP wont have it, they will have only 52-54 senators, leaving them 12-14 votes short of impeachment.

But see even having to explain that to their supporters who believe they gave the GOP everything they needed for impeachment, isnt the GOP's biggest problem.

The GOP's biggest problem is that, there was NEVER any chance of them being able to impeach and remove the President, and anyone who can do basic math has know that since the day after election day 2012.

Ok so in this election the GOP started with 45 seats. Of the seats contested in the election 21 were Democrats.  Which means that if the GOP had run the table and defeated EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT, which no one expected, they would have had 66 seats.

A 2/3rds majority is 67 seats. Meaning even under the best possible conditions they would have been a single vote short.

Like I said, pure and simple math.

Simple enough that Republicans knew this. They've known it for years

But that hasnt stopped them from telling their base that if they ONLY gave them the senate they could totally impeach Obama.

Well it kinda turns out thats exactly what the party voters wanted and the voter gave them exactly what they asked for.

So now the new Republican Congress is stuck in a trap of their own making. They cant actually deliver the goods they promised, and knew that when they promised them.

It will be interesting to see how the Republican Base is going to feel about that when the truth comes out (which will be seconds after the first Republican has to make an excuse for not impeaching Obama)

Oh and if that wasnt bad enough......the other major promise the Republicans made, to repeal Obamacare....well we all know that bill is going to get vetoed.

And how many votes does it take to overcome a veto in the senate? 67.

So yea, that was another set of goods they've known for years they would never be able to deliver on and lied about it.

Which means when it comes to their own party, the new senate hasnt even been sworn in yet and things are already looking pretty bumpy........