Written by David Starr   

Despite the rantings of the discredited Sara Palin, and others among the right, that President Obama should be impeached, a CNN/ORC International poll found that 65% of U.S. citizens do not want impeachment. Only 33% supported it.

With the extreme position taken by the Republicans, the Democrats have taken advantage of it, using it, e.g., as a fund-raising tool. Similar to the government shut down imposed by the Republicans, the Democrats are in a position to show that they are trying to run the day-to-day affairs of government. The Republicans in the meantime look like obstructionists again.

Talk of actual impeachment has been going on as early as 2013. An article in The Hill, dated 12/29/2013, quoted the crazy-eyed Michelle Bachman as saying, "We can have an impeachment hearing in the House and in my mind, the president has committed impeachable offenses."

The Tea Party has naturally got into the act. TeaParty.org, e.g., put out an online petition supporting impeachment. Among the reasons (with my responses):

• The Obama administration failed to protect U.S. lives from an attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Then Secretary-of-State Hillary Clinton created an Accountability Review Board to investigate. In its conclusion, diplomatic security was criticized and 29 recommendations were made to beef it up. This was accepted by the State Department. The right also accused the Obama administration of lying about how the incident took place.

The Tea Party and the rest of the GOP are in no position to judge. How quickly they forget about the Bush Jr. regime having received a warning that there was going to be an attack in the U.S. Then came 9/11. When told of the attack, Bush Jr. just sat in an elementary school classroom looking like a deer frozen in the headlights, rather than quickly excusing himself and doing his job. Then there are the lies that were told to "justify" the Iraq War.

• Use and abuse of the Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act is itself unconstitutional: according to the American Civil LIberties Union (ACLU), government may search and seize papers and effects without probable cause; jail U.S. citizens indefinately without trial; monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity; and jail U.S. citizens without charge or to confront witnesses against them. The Patriot Act was signed into law by Bush Jr.

• Putting "a bounty on the heads of 22 Navy SEALs aboard a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, sending them "to their deaths."

A bounty? The word is misused, creating a melodramatic distortion. A bounty is a reward for anyone who can hunt down and capture or kill a criminal, or "criminal."

It can't be denied, however, that the Obama administration is guilty of violations:

• Signing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows indefinate detention in the U.S.; strips heabeas corpus rights from prisoners in Guantanamo; and blocks most cleared detainees from going home.

• Drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

• Contributing to violating the sovereignty of Libya in an unwarranted attack, which allowed religious fanatics to come into power.

• Extending the Patriot Act. (The Republican-controlled House voted 250 - 153 to extend it.)

• Continuing Bush Jr. policies such as keeping the prison in Guantanamo open.

But the right is not only trying to impeach for mainly the wrong reasons, it is doing it as a political ploy. Impeachment is more than anything a tool to use and abuse to kick out the right's biggest opposition: Barack Obama.