WORST AMERICAN POLITICS EVER?

Over the last 20 years we have seen the evolution of the worst American politcs ever which is not to say that there have been previous intervals of bad politics. Consider: President Clinton was impeached in December of 1998 for trivial, if disgusting, sexual indiscretions in the Oval Office. The only other president to be impeached was Andrew Johnson in 1868, but at least he was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act, passed over Johnson's veto the previous year, that said certain office holders could not be removed by the president without approval by the Senate. The group involved were called the Radical Republicans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Republican.

I find it interesting that the group to impeach President Clinton was a group of radical Republicans led by Rep Gingrich some 130 years later. In a loose way the Radical Republicans of the 1860s were the equivalent of the "tea party" now. Both were groups within the Republican Party that controlled the Republican Party.

Nearly 14 years later with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives, we have for the first time ever the Attorney General of the United States has been held in contempt of Congress, allegedly for failure to turn over certain documents regarding an operation called Fast and Furious (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal), a program started in late 2006 under the George W. Bush administration and discontinued in 2011 under the Obama. This program is difficult summarize, and you should read the articles cited. Apparently ATF officials monitored the sale of guns by middle men who transported or passed them on to others on their way to Mexican cartels and other outlaws. The AFT officials were told not to interdict this passage of firearms because of second amendment issues and difficulties in prosecution. About 7,000 documents were turned over to the oversight committee, but another 1,600 were requested that were refused because of "Executive Privilege," the first such claim by the Obama administration.

So the two presidential impeachments and a congressional contempt of Congress for an Attorney General have all been conducted by the Republican Party, two of these in the last 20 years. If the Republican Party cannot impeach a president, then they go after one of his appointees. I believe we are living in a sad era of politics in the United States in which the Republican Party does everything in its power to destroy a Democratic Presidency, should they be elected. The efforts are not restricted to impeachments and contempts of Congress. See Clinton in: http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2012/05/land-mines-in-way-of-becoming-great.html. Mitch McConnell even has said in 2010, "The most import thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Please note that he didn't say to reduce unemployment, or reduce taxes on business, or increase manufacturing in the U.S., etc., but that he wants to defeat the president (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/10/25/126242/mcconnell-obama-one-term/?mobile=nc). He has also said that to provide health care for 30 million Americans that don't have it is not the issue (http://www.politicususa.com/mitch-mcconnell-tells-millions-americans-healthcare-you-arent-issue.html).