GOP congressman calls for Obama's impeachment

Congress needs to push for impeachment proceedings against President Obama, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said.

"It needs to happen, and I agree with you it would tie things up," Burgess told a town hall attendee Monday, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "No question about that."

"We need to tie things up," Burgess added. "The longer we allow the damage to continue unchecked, the worse things are going to be for us."

In a followup interview Burgess told The Hill the town hall attendee had first said that Congress should push impeachment of Obama as a way of slowing down the Obama administration's policy agenda and the congressman was agreeing with the notion.

Burgess said such an impeachment attempt "would not be successful," but he said something had to be done to stall the administration's agenda.

Burgess added that the time when President Obama could have done something to merit impeachment had come and gone.

"I am in agreement with [the attendee's] thought that things need to be slowed down," Burgess said. 

He did not say explicitly whether he was for or against Congress trying to impeach Obama in the future or on what grounds.

On Tuesday a new CNN/Opinion Research Poll found that Americans are more unhappy with the GOP than they were with the Republican-controlled House when it voted to impeach then-President Clinton. According to the poll, 59 percent of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of the GOP while 33 percent hold a favorable opinion. The poll also found that 51 percent of Americans said they have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party. 

1998 was the last time CNN found more than 50 percent of voters had an unfavorable view of the GOP. On Dec. 19, 1998, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach Clinton. CNN conducted a poll from Dec. 19 to Dec. 20 that year that found 57 percent of voters held an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.

—This story was updated at 4:17 p.m.