'She misspoke,' said a spokesman for Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson LeeShe sure is misunderstood a lot.
During a floor speech on Wednesday night, Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee voiced her opposition to the House Republican lawsuit against President Barack Obama and said that Democrats had never moved to impeach former President George W. Bush when he was in office.
"A historical fact that President Bush pushed this nation into a war that had little to do with apprehending terrorists," Jackson Lee said. "We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush, because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority."
It's an odd thing for Jackson Lee to say, because it was just six years ago that she helped lead a movement to impeach Bush by co-sponsoring a bill accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors.
"She misspoke," Jackson Lee's spokesman Mike McQuerry told Yahoo News on Thursday morning. He declined to elaborate on what she meant to say.
Some members of the GOP conference have stoked talk of impeachment, but House Speaker John Boehner has said there are no plans to pursue it. However, last night the House approved a lawsuit against the president, voting 225-201 to force him to carry out provisions in the 2010 health care law that his administration has postponed. Democrats say Republicans are using it merely as an election-year political ploy, because they know an impeachment effort would not succeed.
Despite Democratic protests on the House floor, however, party lawmakers seem downright gleeful about the exercise after fundraising successfully from the lawsuit and talk of impeachment.
Image of House Resolution 1258 at link.