http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=FF62441C-9911-40CF-8A51-5DAB584E6059Krauthammer: ‘Medium crimes’
By: Lucy McCalmont
July 30, 2014 07:41 PM EDT
Minutes after House Republicans voted to authorize Speaker John Boehner to take the president to court, Charles Krauthammer on Wednesday called the lawsuit a potential “breakthrough” in calling Barack Obama to account for his “medium crimes.”
“It’s over issues that you might say are not high crimes, but they’re medium crimes. And this might be a breakthrough,” Krauthammer said on Fox News’ “Special Report.”
The House voted 225-201 to move ahead with the lawsuit over the delay of Obamacare’s employer mandate provision. Krauthammer said Obama’s reach in domestic issues has been unprecedented, and cautioned that focusing on the employer mandate “could be seen as a negative” for Republicans.
“The only problem I have with the lawsuit is they chose one specific issue because they wanted to narrow down the lawsuit to one law and not 15,” he said.
However, Krauthammer charged that Obama “clearly, lawlessly” changed the law regarding the employer mandate.
“The substance is it’s a very serious issue and I think Democrats will regret not having taken seriously the president’s overreach on domestic issues,” Krauthammer said. “There’s a very strong argument that he has overreached by actually creating law, ignoring law, not enforcing law, changing laws on his own, which you are simply not supposed to do and there are many examples of it.”
While Democrats and other critics have slammed Republicans for pursuing the lawsuit, Krauthammer said it’s “constitutionally serious” and was a way for Republicans to act against Obama short of seeking his impeachment.
“The one thing to be said about is, they’re trying to find a way less than impeachment, some step that is not about impeachment, which is a constitutional crisis, as a way to rein in a runaway president. I hope it succeeds,” he said.
