Gov. Jay Nixon
No, not that Nixon. He's dead. Missouri's Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon has pissed off a bunch of Republicans in the state House, apparently just by being a Democrat in the governor's seat. So they're going to impeach him. Is that because of his high crimes and misdemeanors? Treason?
Hardly.
One legislator has lodged a complaint over Nixon’s executive order last year that directed state tax officials to accept joint tax returns from same-sex couples who were legally married in other states. Nixon said in November, when he issued the order, that the state should accept the same sorts of tax returns as the Internal Revenue Service, which accepts joint returns from same-sex couples.
Another legislator said Nixon hadn’t moved fast enough to call special elections in three state House districts and a Senate district left vacant by resignations. State law directs the governor to call elections “without delay”; state Rep. Mike Moon’s (R) legislation accuses Nixon of breaking that law.
And a third legislator says Nixon deserves the boot for insufficiently punishing officials at the state Department of Public Safety for releasing a database of Missourians with permits to carry concealed weapons. In 2013, the state Highway Patrol said it had given the list of 163,000 concealed carry permit holders to a Social Security Administration agent in relation to an investigation into fraudulent disability claims.
Those are the three proposed articles of impeachment against Nixon: gays, guns, and some other thing. An aide to Nixon dismisses the pending impeachment as a "publicity stunt." That's a generous assessment, but this move still gives Missouri Republicans the ability to say "Gov. Nixon was impeached," because they'll have the hearing and the committee will probably vote to do it. The full House might not be willing to embarrass themselves with a floor vote, and the state Senate is even more unlikely to do so.
But, hey, when did sounding like they might just be crazy ever stop a Republican?