While we should never count our chickens until they are fully out of their shells, there is almost unanimous agreement among the major polling groups that the GOP should be able to retake the majority in the House next month. (Insert the standard caveat about how bad the polling has been of late here.) If that happens, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy still appears to be the odds-on favorite to be the next Speaker, though that assumption also comes with a few caveats. Some of the GOP members in the lower chamber have clearly been feeling their oats and have been starting to suggest that Joe Biden might be impeached next year if everything plays out as expected. But McCarthy gave an interview to Punchbowl News yesterday in which he pushed back on that idea strongly. Rather than talking about impeaching Biden, the GOP needs to keep a laser focus on the Democrats’ mishandling of the economy, inflation, crime rates, and border security. McCarthy is obviously not flawless at all times in terms of the conservative agenda, but this is one time when the members might be wise to listen to him. (Bloomberg News)

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy pushed back against pressure from some Republicans in the chamber to impeach President Joe Biden or members of his cabinet if the party takes over next year.

McCarthy, in an interview published Wednesday by Punchbowl News, said he doesn’t see the case for impeaching Biden or members of his cabinet “right now.”

“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all. If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal,” McCarthy told Punchbowl News.

Before anyone begins accusing me of jumping ship and joining Team Biden, at least hear me out. The wind is at the back of the GOP right now because of all the issues I mentioned above. The country is dealing with multiple crises at the moment and almost all of them are either a direct result of the Democrats’ policies under the Biden administration or they were significantly exacerbated by them. The Democrats have no viable fig leaf to hide behind on those issues. We don’t need to give Democrats and particularly independents a reason to vote against the current agenda (or at least stay home on election day) because the party in power has already given them all of the excuses they require.

If the GOP turns around now and immediately starts talking about impeachment being on the table, that might be just the scare tactic that those marginal voters need to change their minds. They already sat through the Democrats’ endless circus of impeaching Donald Trump twice and I’m guessing that a lot of them (particularly those who would normally be inclined to support a liberal agenda) don’t want to go through that again.

I’m not blind to the lingering resentment many conservatives justifiably feel toward Democrats after the final year or so of the Trump administration. Yes, it would probably feel rewarding to give them a taste of their own medicine after sitting through two pointless Trump impeachments that were doomed to failure from the beginning. But if the GOP doesn’t have 60 rock-solid seats in the Senate (which currently looks absolutely impossible), wouldn’t such a move wind up being precisely as stupid as what the Democrats did? There are so many other disasters from the first two years of the Biden presidency that deserve – actually demand – serious investigations and hearings in both chambers starting in January. Why waste everyone’s time on an impeachment that is doomed to fail?

And if that’s not enough to put you off of this idea, consider one further point. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that you can find sixty votes in the Senate and actually remove Sleepy Joe from office. There is no mechanism in place to prevent Kamala Harris from ascending to the presidency. Does that actually sound like an improvement as compared to our current situation to any of you? Honestly? Joe Biden at least has an excuse for his erratic behavior and frequent verbal missteps that his staff always has to “clarify” and clean up after the fact. Kamala Harris is simply terrible and frequently unintelligible when speaking in public. And God only knows what sort of progressive madness she would be pushing or enacting through executive orders over the next two years.

If the GOP winds up taking back control of both chambers next month (and that’s still a very big “if,” at least in terms of the Senate), Joe Biden’s presidency will effectively be over. Even taking back just the House will essentially have the same effect. Aside from some additional executive orders that will almost all end up being tied in knots in the courts, he’ll be done. Then it will just be a matter of waiting him out for two years and seeing if the tide has shifted sufficiently to take back the White House. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.