'Rise of uber-presidency' draws impeachment talk

Barack Obama is being blamed for creating an "uber-presidency" that some members of Congress say steps on their constitutional powers.

They believe impeachment is a logical solution, but there's another idea: Vote Republican in 2014.

In an interview with Sean Hannity this week, Reps. Steve King, R-Iowa, and Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, offered details of their charges against Obama.

King pointed to the president's actions on immigration, such as his orders for authorities not to enforce current immigration law.

He said there are multiple violations related to Obamacare and asserted the president's "recess" appointments of judges when the Senate was not actually in recess also is worthy.

The "uber-presidency," King said, has little or no respect for the Constitution.

Farenthold said Obama "is grabbing as much power as he can" but Congress also is doing little to draw in the reins.

The two said that politically, Obama is exercising great power and believes Congress cannot or will not stop him.

"The president knows it; he's exploiting it," King said.

He said Obama "will spend money if he decides, will tax if he decides, will defy the Constitution if he decides."

Farenthold's solution is for people to vote Republican in 2014, creating a barricade of a GOP Congress against a renegade president.

The congressmen said that American people "have to rise up."

Meanwhile, a witness a House Judiciary Committee hearing featured arguments against Obama's alleged assumption of extra-constitutional powers.

He noted a "check on executive lawlessness is impeachment" but went further.

Michael Cannon, director of Health Policy Studies for the Cato Institute, said there is "one last thing to which the people can resort if the government does not respect the restraints that the Constitution places of the government."

"Abraham Lincoln talked about our right to alter our government or our revolutionary right to overthrow it," he said.

"That is certainly something that no one wants to contemplate. If the people come to believe that the government is no longer constrained by the laws then they will conclude that neither are they."

Cannon said it is "very dangerous" for the president to "wantonly ignore the laws, to try to impose obligations upon people that the legislature did not approve."

WND has reported on members of Congress raising the issue of impeachment.

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, even handed out copies of a book that has been described by its authors as the "articles of impeachment" for Barack Obama. Stockman suggested that special investigations, and possibly prosecutions, are needed in response to Fast and Furious, Benghazi and other Obama scandals.

Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, was speaking at a town hall meeting when he considered the idea. A video of his comments was posted at the Western Center for Journalism.

"I've looked at the president. I think he's violated the Constitution. I think he's violated the Bill of Rights," he said.

He said at some point a decision must be made.

"I think if the House had an impeachment vote it would probably impeach the president."

But he noted there are only 46 members of the GOP in the U.S. Senate, where an impeached president would be put on trial.

To obtain a conviction, the prosecuting team must have 67 votes, and he wasn't sure that even all of the GOP members would vote to convict.

Other members of Congress who have made comments about impeachment include Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.; Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich.; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas; Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah; Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.; R-Texas; Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla.; Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa; and Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla.

"I think he"s breaking the law if he strikes without congressional approval," Hunter told the Washington Times regarding Obama's plan to bomb Syria. "And if he proceeds without Congress providing that authority, it should be considered an impeachable offense."

Read the definitive case for removing Barack Obama from office in "Impeachable Offenses" by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

WND previously reported Coburn's statement that Obama is "perilously close" to qualifying for impeachment.

Speaking at the Muskogee Civic Center in Oklahoma, the senator said, "What you have to do is you have to establish the criteria that would qualify for proceedings against the president, and that's called impeachment."

Coburn said it's "not something you take lightly, and you have to use a historical precedent of what that means."

"I think there's some intended violation of the law in this administration, but I also think there's a ton of incompetence, of people who are making decisions," he said.

A constituent then responded, "Even if there is incompetence, the IRS forces me to abide by the law."

Coburn said he agreed.

"Those are serious things, but we're in a serious time,” he said. "I don't have the legal background to know if that rises to high crimes and misdemeanor, but I think they're getting perilously close."

Visit WND’s online Impeachment Store to see all the products related to ousting Obama.

Days earlier, Bentivolio said it would be a "dream come true" to impeach Obama.

Bentivolio told the Birmingham Bloomfield Republican Club Meeting, "You know, if I could write that bill and submit it, it would be a dream come true."

He told constituents: "I feel your pain and I know. I stood 12 feet away from that guy and listened to him, and I couldn't stand being there. But because he is president I have to respect the office. That's my job as a congressman. I respect the office."

Bentivolio said his experience with the president caused him to consult with attorneys about what it would take to remove Obama from office.

Cruz responded to a question about impeachment after a speech.

"It's a good question," Cruz said. "And I'll tell you the simplest answer: To successfully impeach a president you need the votes in the U.S. Senate."

Farenthold, who thinks there are enough votes in the House to impeach Obama, said he often is asked why Congress doesn't take action.

He said he answers, "[I]f we were to impeach the president tomorrow, we would probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it."

But, like others, Farenthold sees the lack of votes in the Senate as a roadblock.

The congressman also worries about what would happen if they tried to impeach Obama and failed. He believes the unsuccessful attempt to impeach President Clinton hurt the country.

In May, Inhofe suggested Obama could be impeached over a White House cover-up after the attack in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

He told listeners of "The Rusty Humphries Show": "Of all the great cover-ups in history – the Pentagon papers, Iran-Contra, Watergate, all the rest of them – this … is going to go down as the most egregious cover-up in American history."

But even with that searing indictment, Inhofe, too, stopped short of calling for impeachment.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, has offered tentative support for impeachment.

"I'm not willing to take it off the table, but that's certainly not what we're striving for," he told CNN.

One Republican actually has come out and called for the impeachment of Obama, and he did it more than two years ago, before he became a congressman.

Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., posted on his website in June 2011 a list of reasons for impeachment.

Other figures who have discussed impeachment include Glenn Beck, Watergate investigative reporter Bob Woodward, WND columnist Nat Hentoff and a panel of top constitutional experts.

Stockman recently distributed copies of the book, "Impeachable Offenses: The Case for Removing Barack Obama From Office," to the other 434 members of the House of Representatives to bolster his case for a special investigation of the President.

The bestselling "Impeachable Offenses" presents an indictment that goes well beyond today’s headlines.

The Daily Mail of London has called "Impeachable Offenses" "explosive," reporting that the book contains a "systematic connect-the-dots exercise that the president's defenders will find troublesome."

"Consider this work to be the articles of impeachment against Barack Obama," stated Klein.

"Every American, whether conservative or liberal, Democrat, Republican or independent, should be concerned about the nearly limitless seizure of power, the abuses of authority, the cronyism, corruption, lies and cover-ups documented in this news-making book," Klein said.

The authors stress the book is not a collection of generalized gripes concerning Obama and his administration. Rather, it is a well-documented indictment based on major alleged violations.

Among the offenses enumerated in the book:

Obamacare not only is unconstitutional but illegally bypasses Congress, infringes on states' rights and marking an unprecedented and unauthorized expansion of IRS power.
Sidestepping Congress, Obama already has granted largely unreported de facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens using illicit interagency directives and executive orders.
The Obama administration recklessly endangered the public by releasing from prison criminal illegal aliens at a rate far beyond what is publicly known.
The president's personal role in the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack, with new evidence regarding what was transpiring at the U.S. mission prior to the assault – arguably impeachable activities in and of themselves.
Illicit edicts on gun control in addition to the deadly "Fast and Furious" gun-running operation intended, the book shows, to collect fraudulent gun data.
From "fusion centers" to data mining to drones to alarming Department of Homeland Security power grabs, how U.S. citizens are fast arriving at the stage of living under a virtual surveillance regime.
New evidence of rank corruption, cronyism and impeachable offenses related to Obama’s first-term "green" funding adventures.
The illegality of leading a U.S.-NATO military campaign without congressional approval.
Obama has weakened America both domestically and abroad by emboldening enemies, tacitly supporting a Muslim Brotherhood revolution, spurning allies and minimizing the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.