Repeat after me: 'Impeachment is a distraction'

Relax. Keep your eyes on my timepiece. You are getting sleepy. Clear your mind and repeat after me, "Impeachment is a distraction. Impeachment is a distraction. Impeachment is a distraction."

It's like a mantra or the soothing words of the hypnotist. Maybe it's a word association game being played by Republicans – "impeachment" equals "distraction."

• "If somebody were to file impeachment proceedings – well, the fact is we know that's going nowhere in the Senate. And it's going to be a major, major distraction from actually getting results, which means rolling back some of his power relative to Congress." – Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La.

• "Does President Obama deserve to be sued or impeached? Yes! Is there a snowball's chance in hell that either the lawsuit or an impeachment will succeed? No! Why not sue Barack Obama then, or impeach him? For the simplest of all reasons: Neither of these actions is going to do anything to stop Obama, or even discredit him – and both can create a distraction that draws attention away from the Democrats' disasters during an election year. – Thomas Sowell

• "I'm glad to see House Republicans are challenging him (Barack Obama), at least legally, at this point, but I think that (impeachment) gets to be a bit of a distraction just like the impeachment of Bill Clinton did." – Dick Cheney

TRENDING: A teaching moment

I'm not one for censorship, but if there is ever a movement to ban the word "distraction" from the English language, count me in for support.

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Impeachment is not a distraction; it's the serious business of the Constitution of the United States. It's a duty. It's a sober responsibility. It the moral and legal consequence of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by an out-of-control, rogue president. It's cowardice to make excuses whether a conviction is politically likely or not.

Some Republicans are in hopeless denial, like House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.: "We are not working on or drawing up articles of impeachment. The Constitution is very clear as to what constitutes grounds for impeachment of the president of the United States. He has not committed the kind of criminal acts that call for that."

This is what the Constitution says about impeachment: "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." Does Rep. Goodlatte actually believe Obama is not guilty of even a political misdemeanor? Where has he been for the last five years? Perhaps he's spending too much time in Washington.

By the way, is he also aware the Constitution gives the Republican-controlled House of Representatives sole authority to impeach? "The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."

Send Congress the pink slip! Here’s the message to every single member of the House and Senate you can send before November.

I agree, for once, with "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, who mocked Republican lawmakers for accusing Obama of tyranny and worse, but then do nothing about it.

"That's how you know all this talk of tyranny is bull----," he said. "When your main concern when you're deposing a tyrant is how it will affect your party's chances in the upcoming midterm elections, that's not tyranny."

Even some self-proclaimed tea-party leaders are falling in line with Republican cowardice. Taylor Budowich, executive director of the Tea Party Express PAC in California, says that an attempt to impeach the president would be misguided and potentially damaging to the conservative movement heading into the fall midterms: "While conservatives may have some legitimate legal grievances with President Obama's actions, American voters, by and large, do not feel President Obama deserves to be impeached. The priorities for the majority of voters are to rein in out-of-control spending and get the economy working again. Impeachment is a distraction."

There's that D-word, again. Distraction from what?

What are Republicans doing about reining in out-of-control spending and getting the economy working again?

Didn't Republicans in the House give Barack Obama a blank checkbook every time they raised the debt limit over the last five years?

I'd really like to know what it is that Republicans are being "distracted" from doing by talk of impeachment.

I would suggest to you that focusing on anything but impeaching this president is a distraction from solving our nation's problems.

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