The entire point of electing a House GOP majority was to put a check on the excesses of the Biden White House – which includes his Cabinet.

With the House GOP finally seated and committee assignments handed out, it’s time for the Republican leadership to get organized and start holding the Executive Branch accountable for what they have – and have not – done. The first and most obvious candidate for impeachment is Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. This was a campaign promise made by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and it is high time that the House GOP deliver on pushing that impeachment through.

Mayorkas has been an obvious failure. Whether that is unintentional through incompetence, or intentional through maliciousness, it doesn’t matter. Mayorkas is not doing his job, which is to protect the borders and the national security of the United States. The southern border is a porous wreck, and anyone with eyes willing to see can acknowledge that. The NORTHERN border has now become a problem as well, with Mexican nationals now crossing from Canada into Vermont. But when Mayorkas is confronted with the disaster he has allowed to continue, he refuses to acknowledge that anything is wrong. He calls it a “disagreement over policy.”

House Republicans, who have been fierce critics of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, have been moving to build a case against Mayorkas as they consider launching rare impeachment proceedings against a Cabinet secretary.”

“I’m not going to resign,” Mayorkas told CNN’s Chris Wallace on “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” which is now streaming on HBOMax and airs Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET on CNN.”

“I call upon Congress – as the president has done, as this nation has done – to actually fix an immigration system that has been broken for decades,” he added.”

Republican lawmakers have argued that Mayorkas’ claims of having operational control of the border are unfounded and that the record arrests mark a dereliction of duty – two themes that have come up repeatedly in congressional hearings and have been cited as reason to impeach the secretary.”

Ahead of potential proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security is bringing on a private law firm to help with potential impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas.”

“I don’t have any intention of being uncooperative. I have complete confidence in the integrity of our decision making,” Mayorkas told Wallace.”

Yeah, if Mayorkas was feeling confident about his position, would Homeland Security be hiring a PRIVATE law firm to save him? This is the one impeachment case where the House GOP has a mountain of evidence, the will to remove the secretary, AND possibly just enough Democrats in the Senate willing to make a “bipartisan” show and make Mayorkas the scapegoat for Biden’s border policies. It’s still a high bar to clear, with a two-thirds majority necessary to convict in the Senate. But there’s a lot of unrest in the Senate right now, and a whole lot of vulnerable Democrats in purple or red states who may feel that tossing Mayorkas out would be better for their voting record than not. Do we honestly know how Kyrsten Sinema, who is running in border state Arizona as an independent incumbent, would vote when it comes to impeaching Mayorkas? Nope. And that’s why there’s a private law firm on tap to defend his sorry record.

A longer shot, but still an equally legitimate target for the House GOP, is Attorney General Merrick Garland. We should be grateful every single freaking day that Senator Mitch McConnell refused to hold a Senate confirmation on this guy. Imagine what the Supreme Court would look like with him on it. Garland has been very busy abusing the power of the FBI and the Justice Department to harass and indict Americans for daring to oppose administration policy. Remember, his DOJ signed off on targeting parents who dared speak out at school board meetings as “domestic terrorists,” and then when Garland was brought in to testify before the House about it, he became a “know nothing” patsy whose DOJ was apparently issuing memos without getting clearance from the boss. But the memo stands anyway.

Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland says he stands by the DOJ memo targeting parents at school boards meetings—spurred by a letter from the National School Boards Association asking them to investigate concerned parents for "possible acts of domestic terrorism." pic.twitter.com/7uHdklVwvU

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 27, 2021

We could also mention the raid on Mar-a-Lago by the FBI that the press was obviously tipped off about, and the contrast in the handling of the Trump classified documents investigation as compared to the Biden classified documents investigation (which only got a special prosecutor when it became too obvious to ignore). We could also talk about the prosecution of pro-life protestors – the DOJ just indicted eight nonviolent protestors in Michigan for allegedly blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic in Michigan… in 2020. Not to mention the FBI early morning SWAT-like arrest of Mark Houck, who was later acquitted of charges related to a pro-life protest by a federal jury. Hiring a lawyer to represent you is expensive. Being charged by the federal government can easily bankrupt the average person with the legal charges alone, even if you are acquitted. This is disgusting partisan targeting, and Attorney General Garland should be impeached by the House GOP. I fully acknowledge that he will not be convicted by the Senate. Fine. The left likes to make a big deal about impeachment being a stain on a person’s record, so let that label follow Garland for the rest of his life as well.

The last candidate for impeachment should come as no surprise if you’ve been watching the news. It was always clear that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was merely biding his time until another presidential run, despite not having held an office higher than mayor before. Clearly, with more power and responsibility, epic failures have followed.

Rather than being a stepping stone to the presidency, Pete Buttigieg's time as Secretary of Transportation is looking more and more like the millstone that will finally drown his ambitions to higher office. https://t.co/lpEjtlDhDf

— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) February 23, 2023

A man of the people, Secretary Pete is not. He finally showed up in East Palestine, Ohio, today, after weeks of avoiding it. And I’m pretty sure the only reason he deigned to go is because the entire Biden administration got royally showed up by Donald Trump yesterday.

The Left simply doesn't understand how much this means to a huge section of the American public, who feels repeatedly abandoned by Democrats and much of the mainstream media. https://t.co/Qnm8nVH3jc

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) February 22, 2023

And I mean Trump came to town, listened to people, brought supplies, and bought McDonald’s for the first responders.

Trump stops at a local McDonald’s in East Palestine, Ohio. pic.twitter.com/T6c4tdS2Y8

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 22, 2023

Nina covered Secretary Pete’s visit earlier today, and I think the contrast between “man of the people” Trump and “stuffed shirt” Pete are pretty apparent. Yes, Trump has it easier because all he has to do is show up, make a few grand gestures, and leave. But 90 percent of politics is simply SHOWING UP. Buttigieg wasn’t showing up, so Trump showed him up.

Is this impeachment-worthy? No, but Buttigieg has racked up quite the laundry list of failures, from not telling people he was off the job and on paternity leave while there was a supply chain breakdown, to the airlines cancelling flights, to lecturing people about avoiding oil prices by spending gobs of money on electric cars. Has he finally hit the ceiling on his upward fails? Maybe. Could he be impeached by the House GOP? Sure. Does he deserve it? I’m not entirely sure he does, but when the Democrats sell government as the solution to everything, and then nothing gets solved, where should the buck stop? Buttigieg wanted to be responsible, so sure, hold him to that – even though he won’t be convicted. The attack ads are already being written by other Democrat hopefuls anyway. What a delicious irony, that the job he was given as a political payoff, that was supposed to serve as a springboard to greater office, may now doom him in a primary.

The House GOP has their work cut out for them. They better get to it.

Featured image via Proulain on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license