Nutbag Michael Connelly, former U.S. Army officer and retired Louisiana lawyer and who claims to be a Constitutional lawyer, has taken it upon himself to draw and submit to the House of Representatives articles of impeachment against the President, demanding that they be approved.
In article I, he maintains that the President has violated his oath of office and “has willfully corrupted and manipulated the executive branch to increase its power and destroy the balance of powers between the three branches of government that is established by the Constitution of the United States.”
In section 1, he alleges that shortly after taking office, Obama began to usurp powers that he does not have when he “began creating new departments and appointing Czars to oversee these departments. These Czars were never submitted to the United States Senate for approval as required by Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution.”
This implies that the President must have advice and consent from the Senate for every appointment he makes, which of course is not true. If a layman knows this then a true “constitutional lawyer” certainly should.
In section 2, he claims that the oath of office requires that the President defend and execute the law and that he violated that “by refusing to enforce laws against illegal immigration, defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and refusing to enforce Federal voting laws.”
In the case of the immigration laws, the accusation is ridiculous on it’s face since under Obama, there have been more deportations than there were under George W. Bush in his eight years in office. As for defending DOMA before SCOTUS, there is a fine line to be walked since he has a duty to uphold the Constitution as the supreme law of the land while being asked to defend a law that some advisors may deem unconstitutional.
In section 3, he lays out a laundry list of “illegal” executive orders, a power long recognized and used by every President with the exception of William Henry Harrison. Yet according to Connelly’s charges, it is a usurpation of Congressional authority.
Most amusing of all of the specifications in this list is the inclusion of the 23 executive actions that he issued on January 6 of this year, shortly after the Newtown massacre which Connelly claims limited the 2nd Amendment rights of citizens. Of course it did nothing of the kind and any lawyer should know that an Executive Action is merely a memorandum and does not carry the weight of an executive order.
In Article II section 1, he alleges that the President has repeatedly lied to Congress and the people with a long list of examples which of course include Fast and Furious and — surprise, surprise — Benghazi.
In section 2 he claims that he has violated the civil rights of just about everyone he can think of by forcing “religious institutions and businesses owned by religious families to provide their employees free contraception and other services that are contrary to their religious beliefs.”
Of course no one is doing any such thing, these services are provided by the health insurance which in many cases is not paid for by the employer who often only provides access to the group plan. It is, in that case the employer who is violating the employees rights by prohibiting it based on their personal beliefs.
This too is a long list of complaints that really has no meaning and very little factual support.
Section 3 accuses him of failing to use the military in a way that protects the soldiers and national security and of illegally initiating a war in Libya which of course he did not do.
He concludes his little tirade:
“In all of this, Barack Hussein Obama has undermined the integrity of his office, has brought disrepute on the Presidency, has betrayed his trust as President and has acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
Wherefore, Barack Hussein Obama, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.”
You can read his document in it’s entirety here.