Obama should be impeached for not upholding the DOMA
President Obama’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is “an impeachable offense,” according to Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.
Presidential candidate Herman Cain told attendees on the conference call that impeaching Obama would be "a great thing to do."
Cain made the controversial remarks during an evening conference call last Tuesday with bloggers, during which he also admitted that any impeachment effort based upon Obama’s actions on DOMA will not “get off the ground” because Republicans do not control the U.S. Senate.
The presidential candidate was referring to Obama’s order earlier this year to the Department of Justice not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage federally as a union between one man and one woman, in court.
“The president is supposed to uphold the laws of this nation … and to tell the Department of Justice not to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act is a breach of his oath,” said Cain, who also mentioned Obama’s passage of health care reform against public opinion as another possible reason to impeach the president.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews, Marriage Law Foundation Director William Duncan said he agrees with Cain that “the Administration’s opposition to DOMA has been less than forthright.”
“They have tried to take a dive in litigation because there is no legislative support for recognizing same-sex marriage in federal law,” Duncan said. “This behavior should not be rewarded but rather should be forthrightly opposed by all public officials who care about marriage and by the citizens who elect them.”
Duncan, however, was less sure about Cain’s position on impeaching the president.
“I do not think that his administration’s position on DOMA justifies that strong of a sanction although it is clearly wrong and an entirely novel interpretation of his duty and of the law,” Duncan said. “The attorneys representing the House of Representatives are doing a very good job defending DOMA, far better than the Department of Justice had done.”
Cain’s words were also questioned by Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), who took issue with the fact that Cain has refused to sign their candidate pledge, which commits candidates to uphold traditional marriage. The pledge has been signed by Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.
“We need someone who does not just talk the talk, but walks the walk on marriage,” said Gallagher.
“President Obama claimed he supported traditional marriage but then failed to follow through. If Herman Cain wants to distinguish his position from President Obama, he should commit to concrete actions, not just rhetoric in support of marriage,” she added.
Cain is the former Chief Executive Officer of Godfather’s Pizza and came in fifth place at the presidential straw poll taken by Iowa Republicans on August 13.
