More GOP Hypocrisy: Once Again Republicans Seek A Meritless Impeachment, This Time Of Rod Rosenstein

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Norm Eisen was an ethics lawyer under the Obama administration. He has co-authored a scathing op/ed piece with Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer, in reaction to representatives Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows attempting a meritless impeachment proceeding once again, this time against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. USA Today:

The actions of Meadows, Jordan and their ilk constitute a gross abuse of their offices. They are attempting to misuse the impeachment process as a weapon for intimidation of Justice Department officials and to pervert the process in a manner never envisioned by the Founding Fathers or previously undertaken by the House.

We know this in part because we have seen this movie before.

In the last Congress, Meadows and Jordan recklessly pursued a meritless effort to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. The claims against Koskinen were investigated by the Justice Department and by the Inspector General of the Treasury Department, and neither found any wrongdoing by Koskinen.

The episode was an exercise in raw, right-wing Republican politics. The effort to impeach Koskinen became a vehicle for Republican members to raise campaign contributions for the 2016 election. Meadows, Jordan and their Freedom Caucus supporters showed little interest in the actual facts of the case, which made clear Koskinen had done nothing wrong.

They were out to get Koskinen and the facts proving them wrong were irrelevant. Fortunately, the great majority of their colleagues thought otherwise. When Jordan pushed this to a vote in the House on Dec. 6, 2016, Jordan, Meadows and the Freedom Caucus were soundly rebuked with a bipartisan 342-72 vote against impeachment.

Same GOP-show, same GOP-channel, probably with exactly the same goal in mind, raise money for the 2018 midterms. Whenever there are Republican shenanigans afoot, the first and best course is to follow the money.

Eisen and Wertheimer are right, if anybody has committed a breach of ethics, it is Jordan and Meadows and it is they who should be held accountable, not Rosenstein. They have brought discredit both upon themselves and upon the institution in which they have sworn to serve.

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