Geoffrey Britain — Did or did not Congress (the House) impeach Andrew Johnson? In fact, they did (the Senate failed to convict by ONE vote).
Congress (and the Senate) can if they desire, define High Crimes and Misdemeanors as dismissing Cabinet officers. Or charging terrorists as common criminals. Or corrupt land deals. Or perjury in a civil suit for sexual harassment.
Congress IMPEACHED BOTH Johnson and Clinton. Both escaped conviction by fairly narrow margins. However, Impeachment and Conviction remain real possibilities.
It is likely to be used once, and once only, in that Biden would be told he would be found medically unfit to continue (his aneurysm) and doubtless as a pol of 35 years in the Senate has many scandals he would wish to avoid. Yet, it is there.
As for “lawful orders,” I find it highly likely that most Generals would back Obama. General Casey found that the most “tragic loss” would be diversity from the Fort Hood Massacre, not the people killed. The top brass, all of them, are PC-ified and Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush generals and admirals who care more about getting along with PC-driven pols than anything else. Chain of command means that if Obama issued an order to his JCS, they’d pass them down and the military WOULD OBEY, even if they hated it.
Obama is not stupid. He knows treating Jihadis like criminals who knocked over a 7-11, and prosecuting the CIA interrogators, and leaving CIA agents open to prosecution abroad, and bowing/scraping to the Saudi King, only guarantees a massive casualty attack being successful in the US.
THIS IS WHAT HE WANTS. So he can rule by decree. Who’s going to stop him? Tea Partiers? Middle Class White folks? Please. None of them have picked up a rifle and fired in combat against people trying to kill them. Gen. Casey and all the rest would be happy to go along with a PC-driven rule by decree. The military would obey because that is what they do.
Obama’s gamble is that the US gets hit hard, by terrorists, so he can rule like Chavez as America’s Vizier. Instituting Sharia-lite, as in Europe, with punishment for the White Middle Class and rule by himself and family forever. Chicago politics writ large. His gamble may run out if the nation is in worse straights before terrorism hits so that he’s impeached:
*Gas prices can spike/soar as Nigeria implodes, Iran lights off a nuke and closes the Persian Gulf, or Israel hits Iran (likely with their own nukes which are the only stuff big enough to do the job), or India and Pakistan fight a war, or the Saudis suffer widespread sabotage of oil fields out of Yemen.
*China can suffer a financial bubble asset meltdown, their real estate is in Dubai bubble mode, or Japan’s government could fall apart trigger Yen devaluation and tit-for-tat major currency devaluations, or Greece could default and get kicked out of the Euro Zone (Germany is unwilling to pay to bail them out) or Brazil/India could suffer an asset bubble popping.
*Jihadis could nuke Copenhagen or some other European nation’s capital where the populace has been insufficiently cowed by Muslims. Triggering a mass-panic, stoppage of global container trade (the likely means for delivery), internment/deportation of all Muslims in the West, and global nuclear armament from Switzerland to Sweden.
Any one of these things can bring the US economy crashing down, Obama has as Wretchard noted NO MARGIN and must have everything go right for him to recover. If any one of these crashes the US economy further to say, 40% unemployment, Obama will be impeached along with Biden and replaced by a national unity President.
