A 'Particularly Dangerous Moment'

That’s what the liberal law professor Jonathan Turley said about the executive order on immigration that Obama is planning to announce. If Obama extends amnesty to the millions of illegal aliens in the country, Turley warned, he would be “tearing at the very fabric of the Constitution.”

Peter Wehner made a similar point. Obama, he writes in Commentary, is “about to commit an act of Constitutional infamy.”  It is, Wehner says, “a stain that will stay with him.”

Strong words.  But they are echoed on both sides of the aisle across the country. “In a broad test of his executive powers,” AP reported, “President Barack Obama declared Wednesday he will sidestep Congress and order his own federal action on immigration — in measures that could spare from deportation as many as 5 million people illegally in the U.S. and set up one of the most pitched partisan confrontations of his presidency.”

“Sidestep Congress” and “order his own federal action on immigration.”

Have you got that? “Sidestep Congress” and “order his own federal action on immigration.”

In other words, Barack Obama is just about to underscore his lawlessness and utter disregard for the Constitution by brazenly circumventing the Constitution and the will of the people.  What will the upshot be? Senator Tom Coburn, a normally circumspect and statesmanlike lawmaker, warned that widespread anarchy and even violence are possible. Obama, he said, is acting like “an autocratic leader that’s going to disregard what the Constitution says and make law anyway.”

“Sidestep Congress” and “order his own federal action on immigration.” It’s not every day that you get to have a ringside seat at the birth of tyranny.  Tune in tonight and you might have that dubious privilege.

“Sidestep Congress” and “order his own federal action on immigration.” Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds asked the $64,000 question: “So what’s the country going to do about it?”

As Andrew McCarthy points out in Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment, the Constitution provides three safeguards against abuse of power by the president: elections, the power of the purse, and impeachment. That’s it. Those are the tools.  Speaker John Boehner may pretend that suing the president will impede his lawlessness, but (as McCarthy has pointed out in several columns) the threat of a law suit is an empty threat.

Elections. The power of the purse. Impeachment.

We just had the election. The people spoke. Congress is unwilling to wield its power of the purse effectively. That leaves impeachment.

People scoffed a few months ago when the “i-word” was uttered.  Fewer are scoffing now.  After tonight, I suspect, you’ll start hearing a chorus demanding it.