Via CNS News. Byron York had a post this morning wondering if Boehner would take impeachment off the table for Obama the same way Pelosi did for Bush despite the clamoring on the left at the time. Answer: Yes, of course! That’s the whole point of Boehner’s lawsuit, right? He wants to do something bold to show conservatives that he’s resisting Obama’s power grabs, but not so bold that it’ll blow up in the GOP’s face in November. The lawsuit is the perfect gesture. It gives him an excuse to rail against executive overreach publicly while booting the disposition of the matter to the courts. If they rule against him, it’s the judiciary’s fault, not his. And if it takes a year or more for the case to wend its way up to the Supreme Court, even better. It’s off his plate, which is what’s important. (Said Palin to Hannity last night, “You don’t bring a lawsuit to a gunfight, and there’s no room for lawyers on our front lines.”) For him to turn around and agree with Palin on impeachment after all that would be bizarre. Why pursue a circuitous legal route to rein in Obama if he’s prepared to try to remove him from office entirely?

It’s not just Boehner who’s running away from impeachment either. In purple-state Iowa, GOP Senate nominee Joni Ernst — who’s been endorsed by Palin — carefully explained to Yahoo News yesterday that she didn’t really say she wanted to impeach Obama the last time she said she wanted to impeach Obama.

Republican Iowa U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst attempted Tuesday night to walk back statements made at a January event in which she said President Barack Obama had “become a dictator” who should be “removed from office” or face “impeachment.”…

“To be clear, I have not seen any evidence that the President should be impeached,” the statement read…

“I was asked a question involving a hypothetical about what I thought should happen if the Supreme Court ruled that the president had committed an ‘abuse of power.’ Obviously if the Supreme Court were to ever rule that the President of the United States had abused their power, that would be a very serious charge,” Ernst said in the statement. “I responded by saying that if the court in fact made such a ruling, that the president should face the necessary repercussions. I would give the same answer about any president, Republican or Democrat.”

There are, surely, some GOPers in Congress willing to agree publicly with Palin that Obama must go. Just don’t expect it from anyone who’s running for office in a state or district where Republicans winning the general election is in the tiniest bit of doubt. Exit question: Could Boehner’s impeachment-avoidance strategy end up backfiring if he loses his lawsuit? Imagine a federal judge rules that the House’s dispute with O over executive power is a political question that should either be decided by the people at the polls or by the people’s representatives through their Article I powers — which, of course, includes impeachment. The courts will have essentially punted this issue back to Boehner and told him, a la Erick Erickson, to man up and accept the political risk of trying to remove the president if he’s allegedly so troubled by executive overreach. What’s Boehner’s move then? Use the power of the purse to choke off funding for Obama’s priorities and quietly ignore impeachment altogether, right?

Here’s the clip from this morning’s House leadership presser. Boehner’s facial expressions when the subject is raised are comedy gold.