Issa: 'Not a chance' of Obama impeachment under GOP House

If Republicans take control of the House, there is "not a chance at this point" that they will try to impeach President Obama, a top Republican lawmaker said this week. 

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who would helm the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee if the GOP wins on Election Day, said that his party will not try to bring impeachment charges simply because it disagrees with the president.

"Not a chance at this point. I don’t see it happening," Issa said when asked if there is a chance of impeachment on Bloomberg's "Political Capital," which airs over the weekend.

"Look, disagreeing with the president — the president using his authority, maybe even misusing it — that’s not what impeachment’s for," he added. "Do we have disagreements? Yes. Do we want to see that the president strictly adheres to process? Yes."

Some Republicans, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and former Rep. Tom Tancredo — who is running for governor of Colorado as a third-party candidate — have raised the specter of impeaching Obama, largely over his stance on immigration policy. 

Tancredo originally proposed impeachment this year, and Bachmann said that should be left for Congress to decide.

Democrats had to answer similar questions before they took control of the House in 2006. Some believed they could bring impeachment charges against then-President George W. Bush over his prosecution of the war in Iraq and his policy on warrantless wiretaps. Party leaders eventually ruled out the move.

Issa has been in the spotlight recently, outlining his plan to oversee and investigate the Obama administration if Republicans win control of the House.

The California Republican said this week that he will not revisit the two job offers made by the White House in order to get Democratic candidates out of primary races, even though he once said the charges could be Obama's "Watergate," referencing the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon.

"One of the ones that my committee investigates, as I said, Romanoff and Sestak, these were — these were misconduct. But guess what? The Bush administration, high-ranking executives said they did the same thing," he reiterated on Bloomberg. "So what we have is a pattern of misconduct that isn’t partisan, that isn’t this president. That’s not an impeachable offense, but it’s an offense that needs to change."

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