The Best Of The Dish Today

The former half-term governor has now declared herself in favor of impeachment of the president, and called on all good Republicans to do the same. Drudge, the original impeacher, went into full metal jacket mode – and an instant poll of his readers (close to 170,000 of them at time of posting) backed impeachment by 72 to 15 percent.

You can try and figure out the logic but this is the most coherent of the passages in her declaration of war:

The federal government is trillions of dollars in debt; many cities are on the verge of insolvency; our sarahpalin_200908_477x600_7overrun healthcare system, police forces, social services, schools, and our unsustainably generous welfare-state programs are stretched to the max. We average Americans know that. So why has this issue been allowed to be turned upside down with our “leader” creating such unsafe conditions while at the same time obstructing any economic recovery by creating more dependents than he allows producers? His friendly wealthy bipartisan elite, who want cheap foreign labor and can afford for themselves the best “border security” money can buy in their own exclusive communities, do not care that Obama tapped us out.

Look: don’t ask me. Nothing she says has ever made much sense to me.

But the obviously potent issue she is referring to is illegal immigration, the issue that took down Eric Cantor, and the issue that truly riles up the Fox Nation. And here’s the critical part with respect to the November elections:

It’s time to impeach; and on behalf of American workers and legal immigrants of all backgrounds, we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment.

And so a gauntlet has been laid. A vote for the Republicans this November is a vote for the impeachment of Obama. Any Republican Senate candidate who does not back impeachment will now face growing Tea Party backlash. And every single Senator will now be asked if they support impeachment or not. That seems to me the import of Palin’s endorsement of the most radical action that can be taken against a sitting president. The November elections have just become a vote on the question of impeachment.

Are the Republicans aware of the implications of this? There are plenty of voters who might have voted Republican this fall who will hesitate if they think it means subjecting the country to the kind of spectacle we saw the last time a Democrat dared to win a second term in office. There are many African-American voters who might have sat out this election – but now will see the president beset by the same forces that tried to take down Bill Clinton and may well show up in force. There are, for that matter, many women voters who, before Hobby Lobby, might have felt apathetic this fall and may not now. What I’m suggesting is that, not for the first time, the Republican party’s most treacherous opponent … is the Republican party. And McCain’s Frankenstein leads the way!

Today, we took note of a new study of the power of psilocybin; and the role that plankton could play in reducing atmospheric carbon. I mulled over the promise and pitfalls of “reform conservatism” as well as the “revenge doctrine’ of the state of Israel. Plus: Big Pharma takes on marijuana; and the conversion of a small but growing minority of evangelicals to marriage equality.

The most popular post of the day was “The Tears Of An Elephant“, followed by “The Challenge of Reform Conservatism.”  Many of today’s posts were updated with your emails – read them all here. You can always leave your unfiltered comments at our Facebook page and @sullydish.

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And see you in the morning.

(Photo of the former half-term governor and failed vice-presidential candidate from Runner’s World.)