Think Progress

Impeach Obama Effort Is Too ‘Ridiculous’ Even For Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

ThinkProgress reported recently that Republican Party activist Floyd Brown is launching an impeachment campaign against President Obama. What “high crimes and misdemeanors” has Obama committed? According to Brown, the president’s supposed espousal of Marxist ideology makes him “a very dangerous man and one of the greatest threats to your personal liberty today.”

In an interview this weekend at the Western Conservative Political Action Conference, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) supported Brown’s argument, stating that Obama has a “Marxist background.” But, Rohrabacher added, the impeachment effort is just too crazy an idea for him to support:

I think that’s total nonsense and counterproductive, and quite often, people who are making statements like that are trying to put themselves in a position to raise money from the conservative movement. And any talk of that right now is ridiculous.

The fact is that the American people elected Barack Obama. They elected him! We got to face that. He is an elected President of the United States. We disagree with everything he wants to do, but he has to be treated as the President of the United States, and he has not at this time committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Rohrabacher did leave the door open to future impeachment. Obama’s involvement in Chicago-style politics means he “could be doing things that are questionable enough that they could lead to his impeachment,” the congressman said. “But for right now, that’s a ridiculous discussion.” Watch it:

It’s telling that for Rohrabacher –- who once said global warming was caused by dinosaur farts and dismissed torture as “hazing pranks from some fraternity” –- impeaching Obama is an idea that is just too absurd to support.

The conservative blog Hot Air similarly denounces Brown’s effort, calling it one of the “worst -– and worst defended –- ideas at WCPAC.”

Bar Owner With Racist Anti-Obama Sign: Obama’s A ‘Half-Breed’

The Georgia Peach Museum and Restaurant — which boasts that it is “the original Klan bar” on its website — caused a media firestorm last week when it put up a sign that read, “Obama’s plan for health care – [n-word] rig it.” The restaurant’s owner, Patrick Lanzo, told a local paper that his sign is “strictly about free speech,” and noted that he has in the past been a member of the NAACP and has marched on behalf of gay rights.

Yesterday, radio host Alan Colmes hosted Lanzo and gave him a chance to explain why he chose to use the n-word on his sign. When Colmes chided Lanzo for using the word to refer to Obama, an African American, the restaurant owner responded that Obama isn’t an African American but a “half breed”:

COLMES: No one’s questioning that you have the first amendment right to do it. That’s not the issue.

LANZO: You’re saying it’s not politically correct.

COLMES: It’s not a matter of being politically correct. It’s downright offensive, it’s downright insulting, it’s downright nasty and meanspirited towards a group of people who have been spending fighting for equality. Finally we get an African American president and you’re busy using the n-word to describe something he wants to do in terms of fixing health care.

LANZO: Well, see that would offend me, because I don’t look at Obama bein’ an African American. What’s wrong with him being a Black American? And he’s even a half-breed, he’s not a full black person.

COLMES: Well, again, the word half-breed is rather an insulting term.

Listen here:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed Lanzo inside his restaurant last week. They took this picture of him, where a “Whites Only” swimming pool sign sits underneath a portrait of Barack Obama:

Limbaugh: Michael Steele Is ‘Off-Message!’

In an interview with NBC’s Today Show, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh defiantly stated that he is “not the leader of the Republican Party.” “These people think they can discredit the Republican Party by making me the head of it,” he said. “All they’re doing is elevating me. It’s silly for them to talk about how I’m the leader of anything.”

Well, Limbaugh certainly wants to act like he is a leader of the Party. Just a few moments later, NBC’s Jamie Gangel told Limbaugh that he has a propensity to “scare Republican politicians,” particularly RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who backtracked earlier this year after calling Rush an “entertainer.” Limbaugh responded by instructing the GOP chairman on what he should be doing:

GANGEL: GOP Party Chairman Michael Steele, at his peril, he criticized you. He said you were just an entertainer. And he said you were “incendiary” and “divisive.”

LIMBAUGH: That’s right.

GANGEL: You went after him. I’ve never seen anyone apologize quite so quickly.

LIMBAUGH: Well, you’d have to ask him why he apologized. But, the reason I went after him is not because he said those things about me. It’s because he’s off-message! Michael Steele should be out there raising money and planning more ways to get people to vote for Republicans.

Watch it:

Also in the interview, Limbaugh is asked whether he was moved in any way by the election of the first black President. “Yeah, but I got over it pretty quickly,” said Limbaugh, who declared his desire to see Obama “fail” even before he was inaugurated. Limbaugh said he predicted Obama’s election would “exacerbate racial problems — and it has.” Indeed, Rush has done his part to make sure of that.

Citing ‘Fascism, Socialism, Obamaism,’ Republican Strategist Launches Impeachment Campaign

While the international community is heralding President Obama for his leadership, right-wing activists here in America are clamoring to impeach him. Republican operative Floyd Brown, “one of the nation’s dirtiest political strategists” and the architect of the racially-charged Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis, has launched a campaign to impeach Obama. Brown, who registered his impeachment website in August, worked closely with congressional Republicans to push a similar crusade against Clinton, starting in 1994. During the 2008 campaign, Floyd ran commercials claiming Obama is Muslim.

Rather than cite any specific crime, Brown is demanding Obama’s removal for pursuing progressive agenda items like health and clean energy reform. His website blares: “Are you willing to let [Obama] construct a totalitarian regime… fascism, socialism, Obamaism… take your pick?”

Brown, a proud “birther,” explained to radio host Alan Colmes yesterday that he is also outraged because he doesn’t believe Obama was born in America:

COLMES: During the campaign, you were putting out stuff suggesting Obama is Muslim, wasn’t born here, stuff like that. [...]

BROWN: I’m still disputing his birth certificate.

Colmes asked Brown why he had not raised his voice during the Bush presidency, when, for example, Bush went to war in Iraq without a war powers act. Brown failed to dispute that charge, instead mumbling that although he did not want to impeach Bush, “a lot were”:

COLMES: Should Bush have been impeached for going to war without the consent of Congress, without a war powers act being obeyed?

BROWN: You know what, I’m not going to defend Bush because Alan you know as well as I do I didn’t like Bush.

COLMES: Alright, but you weren’t trying to impeach him were you?

BROWN: Uh no, but many were. I wasn’t, but a lot were.

Brown concluded that Obama is “dangerous because he’s not truthful.” Listen here:

Right-wing activists have been demanding the removal of President Obama for months now. In March, tea party rallies featured professionally-produced signs that said, “Obama Bin Lyin’ IMPEACH NOW.” Last week, a Newsmax column argued that a military coup could “resolve” the “radical left…Obama problem.” And right-wing websites, Fox News’ Glenn Beck, and various conservative talk show hosts have floated the idea of armed revolution against President Obama. Some have suggested using violence as a means of “Pulling our government down, pulling our President out, and putting him back where he should be.”

Claiming Brown’s movement is “mushrooming amongst conservative activists,” conservative news site World Net Daily is promoting the impeachment campaign and producing “IMPEACH OBAMA!” bumper stickers. World Net Daily is supported by the national Republican Party through purchases of e-mail address lists.

Brown is a prominent player in Republican circles. The Washington Post reported that Brown helped throw a fundraiser for RNC Chairman Michael Steele when Steele was running for U.S Senate in Maryland. As the former executive director of the Young Americans Foundation, Brown hosted dozens of Republican lawmakers and connected them with conservative youth activists to help them run for office and wage right-wing rallies on college campuses from 2001 to 2006.

REPORT: ‘We Will Overthrow The Government’ — Calls For Violence Repeatedly Stoked By Conservative Voices

Last week, the right-wing media outlet Newsmax — which receives 4 million unique monthly visitors and 130,000 print subscribers — published a column by conservative author John Perry arguing that a military coup could “resolve” the “radical left…Obama problem.” After being widely criticized, Newsmax retracted the column. However, the column appears to have encouraged an already angry group of anti-Obama radicals who have been plotting violence against the government.

While discussing the Newsmax column on his XM Sirius radio show last week, Michelangelo Signorile heard from a caller, “Jim from Oklahoma,” who explained that the idea of a coup is already being planned by a group of at least 200 people:

Pulling our government down, pulling our President out, and putting him back where he should be [...] [using] the right to bear arms, it’s in the Constitution. [...] We need a coup, there needs to be a coup and if the United States military won’t do it, we’ll do it.

Jim confirmed that he was “dead serious.” Although he was coy about specific details, Jim said that he was motivated by homophobia and an interest in bringing back slavery. A second caller confessed that her own mother has been scheming against the government because she has been captivated by racist thoughts and a belief that “Jesus is coming to overthrow Barack Obama.” She pleaded for people to recognize the extremist threat against Obama. Watch it:

While the intentions of these anonymous calls are difficult to confirm, they are indicative of a pattern of violent rhetoric being voiced by unrepentant conservative figures:

– One of the paying sponsors of the 9/12 anti-Obama rally in September was the National Association for Rural Landowners, a group that references the incidents at Waco and Ruby Ridge to call for attacks on “government entities” and liberals. In a YouTube video posted in July, the group makes the case for a secession, followed by a violent civil war.

– Calling the government “destructive of our rights,” the founder of the popular conservative website FreeRepublic called for “removing from office the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States and all U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives effective immediately” in July. Republican lawmakers, like Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), regularly use the website as a portal for talking points.

– Tea parties have been a constant venue for right-wing rage and calls for violence against the government. In April, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) told a crowd, “Thomas Jefferson once said that the tree of liberty will be fed with the blood of tyrants and patriots. You are the patriots.” ThinkProgress documented similar rhetoric from Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and from rallies attended by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Americans for Prosperity, a group funded Koch Industries’ David Koch that works to plan tea parties, has sponsored speakers comparing health reform to the Holocaust.

– Prominent Republican politicians have framed top Obama agenda items as deserving violent resistance. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has said, “I want people…armed and dangerous” against clean energy reform. Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) has floated the idea of secession in response to policies like the economic stimulus.

– Leading right-wing media outlets have called for “revolution.” Glenn Beck has hosted segments predicting “violent tax revolts,” Michael Savage often says, “We’re going to have a revolution in this country,” radio show host Jim Quinn has called for “riots” because “our country was built on revolution, and it’s about time we took it back.”

There have already been incidents of violence motivated by right-wing hate-speech. Richard Poplawski, who killed three police officers in April, posted videos of Glenn Beck on neo-Nazi websites and had said he was scared of the government. The Southern Policy Law Center has documented a steady rise in militia activity, and today reported on a new ominous YouTube video warning President Obama: “If you stay…‘We, The People’ will systematically dismantle you, destroy you and reclaim what is rightfully ours.”

Kristol Compares Obama’s Olympics Pitch To ‘George W. Bush-Like’ Bullying

Conservatives have been bashing President Obama for the past week over his decision to personally go to Copenhagen to boost America’s pitch for the 2016 Olympics. When the International Olympics Committee eliminated Chicago in the first round, those same conservatives were euphoric. Today on Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard — whose headquarters erupted in “cheers” when America lost — said that Obama’s decision to go to Copenhagen was an example of George W. Bush-like bullying:

KRISTOL: Our economy doesn’t need the boost of the Olympics. And then an American president in sort of a George W. Bush-like way goes and tries to bully the International Olympic Committee. [...]

Come walk with us. I’m here for America. Can you imagine if some Republican — if Bush had done this and we hadn’t gotten it? Typical Bush heavy-handedness, cowboy unilateralist, hegemonic imperialist action. Obama falls into that trap and they went for it. I must say you couldn’t help be amused by it.

Watch it:

First of all, Kristol was a big fan of the Bush administration’s policies, so it’s not clear why he wouldn’t like Obama going to Copenhagen. But more importantly, Obama’s trip was not a “hegemonic imperialist action.” Brazil, Spain, and Japan — the other three 2016 finalists — all sent their country’s leaders to Copenhagen, as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pointed out on NBC’s Meet the Press today. Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks said that he was proud Obama had “put his country ahead of his own personal prestige”:

MADDOW: In 2012, London got the Olympics after Blair tried for them. In 2014, Russia got them after Putin tried for them, and in 2016, all four finalists sent their head of government or head of state to make the argument. Obama did nothing unreasonable, and it would have been a shock if Chicago won. For them to be cheering America’s loss here on the right, I think is sort of disgusting. [...]

BROOKS: Nonetheless, I have to say, I’m with Obama on this. He took a risk, he comes away somewhat humiliated, but he took a risk for his town, he took a risk for his country, he put his country ahead of his own personal prestige, and he lost one. I actually don’t mind it. I think he was all right on this.

E.J. Dionne added that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential slogan was “Country First,” but “in this case, it was Obama-hatred first on the right, not the country.” Watch it: