Reindeer-Farming Congressman Acts Sane, Counters With Impeachment Bill

Wonkette readers have been kept well-informed about reindeer-farming Michigan congressman Kerry Bentivolio -- from before he even officially won his 2012 election, when this site identified him as a potential heir to Michele Bachmann 's Krazy Krown, to the raving retrospective when Bentivolio lost his primary this August.

So, I didn't want you to mistakenly think that Bentivolio ended his brief congressional career with an act of sanity and compromise.

It was widely reported that as Congress tried to wrap up its session on Dec. 11, Bentivolio agreed, at the behest of House loon-rustler John Boehner, to change his vote from no to yes on allowing a vote on the so-called CRomnibus bill to fund the government for a little bit longer. Without Bentivolio's vote, we could have been heading to a government shutdown, or at least House members forced to miss their flights home.

Far less reported, however, is the other thing Bentivolio did on what was, effectively, his last day as a member of Congress.

According to congressional records, Bentivolio filed House Resolution 779, which sought to establish more useful standards than "high crimes and misdemeanors" for impeaching a president. Standards like using signing statements (like Obama on Guantanamo releases!); selective enforcement of laws (like Obama on immigration!); "misusing Federal agencies to advance a partisan political agenda" (like Obama with the EPA!); substituting executive agreements for treaties (like Obama on the UN Climate Change Treaty!); or failing to comply with a Congressional subpoena (like Obama on Fast and Furious!).

Now, some might think that establishing standards for impeachment would make it harder to impeach, because the vague constitutional wording currently makes it too easy for partisan mouth-frothers to impeach on nonsense such as, oh, I don't know, getting blow-jobs or not being able to convince conspiracy theorists that you weren't born in Kenya.

But, as Wonkette readers know, Bentivolio has been concerned that it's too damn hard to impeach Presidents . And it turns out it's not just this one President, as ill as Obama clearly makes him -- Bentivolio thinks Congress should have impeached lots of presidents. As he puts it, in the preamble of H. Res. 779 :

Whereas the past neglect of the House of Representatives to use the impeachment power against Presidential usurpations and lawlessness has concentrated alarming power in the executive branch, crippled liberty, undermined transparency, and encouraged Presidents to further aggrandizements;

With Congress getting out of town that day, Bentivolio knew his filing was moot. But he got his final wishes officially set in the record on his way back to civilian life: MORE IMPEACHMENTS FOR BETTER GOVERNMENT!

[ House Resolution 779 ]