On August 16, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said openly what most Republicans secretly believe:  Impeaching President Barack Obama “would be a great thing to do.”

Asked on a conference call with bloggers why Republicans couldn’t just impeach Obama, Cain responded:

“That’s a great question and it is a great–it would be a great thing to do, but because the Senate is controlled by Democrats we would never be able to get the Senate first to take up that action, because they simply don’t care what the American public thinks.

“So the main stumbling block in terms of getting him impeached on a whole list of things such as trying to pass a health care mandate which is unconstitutional, ordering the Department of Justice to not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act–that’s an impeachable offense right there.

“There are a number of things where a case could be made in order to impeach him, but because Republicans do not control the United States Senate, they would never allow it to get off the ground.”

In his famous indictment of the leaders of the Soviet Union, President Ronald Reagan said in 1981:

“The only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat.”

The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza thus revealed the bald truth about his fellow Republicans: They have become the moral equivalent of the Communists.

As if further proof of this were needed, consider the reaction of Texas Congressman Ron Paul to the September 30 killing of Al Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki by a Predator drone in Yemen. 

The American-born Islamacist had been a senior talent recruiter and motivator for Al Qaeda.  Involved with planning operations for the terrArabist organization, Al-Awlaki used his sermons to motivate at least three attacks inside the United States.

Fluent in both English and Arabic, with a blog, a Facebook page, and many YouTube videos, he had been described as the “bin Laden of the Internet.”

But Al-Awlaki had declared President Barack Obama to be his mortal enemy.  And that gave him and the Republican Party something in common.

Asked at a Manchester, N.H., town hall meeting about Al-Awlaki’s killing, Presidential candidate Paul said it would be “possible” to impeach Obama. 

“I put responsibility on the president because this is obviously a step in the wrong direction,” Paul said. “We have just totally disrespected the Constitution.  He was born here.  He is an American citizen. He was never tried or charged with any crime. Nobody knows if he killed anyone.”

Paul ignored the fact that while Awlaki may not have planted any bombs himself, he did his best to inspire others to do so.  Under Federal law, anyone who conspires to incite violence is just as guilty as whoever carries it out.

Herman Cain offered his own solution to the problem: “If he’s an American citizen, which is the big difference, then he should be charged, and he should be brought to justice.”

Cain ignored the fact that Anwar Al-Awlaki was operating in the badlands of Yemen.  He traveled with heavily-armed bodyguards. This put him well beyond the reach of even the FBI, not to mention an American courtroom. 

But American right-wingers had made it clear, long before the Awlaki killing, that they subscribed to the Arabic motto: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” 

With the enemy, of course, being Obama.

No one has better demonstrated this than fascistic talk show host Rush Limbaugh.  Blasting the awarding, in 2009, of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama, Limbaugh said:

“I think that everybody is laughing.  Our president is a worldwide joke. Folks, do you realize something has happened here that we all agree with the Taliban and Iran about and that is he doesn’t deserve the award?

“Now that’s hilarious, that I’m on the same side of something that the Taliban, and that we all are on the same side as the Taliban.”

Limbaugh, of course, had every right to disagree with Obama’s fitness to receive such a prestigious award.  But he went out of his way to not only do this but to align himself with the men who had pledged to destroy the United States.

Embracing America’s enemies during a time of war used to be called treason.  And such treason was once punishable by death. 

Perhaps it is time to re-instate that particular conservative virtue.