Is Mike Rounds Counting On Impeachment Fever To Turn Out The GOP Base In South Dakota?

We've been trying-- unsuccessfully-- to get the DSCC to understand that they will hold or lose the Senate based on South Dakota, so maybe they should help the Democratic candidate for the open seat there. They don't listen to me. But maybe they'll listen to Washington Post Fix crew-- Chris Cillizza, Aaron Blake and Sean Sullivan. Yesterday, in their list of the 12 races that will decide the Senate majority, they had South Dakota at numero uno. But the DSCC isn't playing there.

1. South Dakota (D): The Jackrabbit State remains our most likely seat to flip. But let’s make the case for this being in-play. Former governor Mike Rounds (R) remains a strong favorite against Democrat Rick Weiland, but this race also includes former three-term GOP (U.S.) senator Larry Pressler and former Republican state senator Gordon Howie running as independents. Neither has raised any money, but maybe Pressler (and to a lesser extent, Howie) steal enough Rounds' votes that this is in-play. Weiland can hope.

South Dakota elects Democrats statewide. It's not some kind of ugly red state that doesn't. The DSCC is ignoring a state with a relatively inexpensive media market while getting ready to spend millions of dollars on long-shot attempts to elect very conservative Democrats from the Republican wing of the party in Kentucky, Georgia and, possibly, even Mississippi. It will be like pulling teeth to get Travis Childers, Alison Lundergan Grimes and Sam Nunn's daughter to vote with Democrats any almost any core divisive issues. Rick Weiland's populist campaign is an absolute guarantee that he won't just be going along with progressive ideas; he'll be leading on them. That well may be why Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown and Jeff Merkley are helping his campaign-- while DSCC Chair Michael Bennet… isn't.

This week the South Dakota GOP is in the news again-- and in the news as a divisive and embarrassingly crazy force that doesn't appeal to normal South Dakotans, only to lunatic fringe extremists. Their state party passed a formal resolution Saturday demanding the impeachment of President Obama. And, scared to death the Tea Party nut will hate him even more than they already do, Mike Rounds signaled through his campaign manager that he agrees.

The resolution says Obama has "violated his oath of office in numerous ways." It specifically cites the release of five Taliban combatants in a trade for captive U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, Obama's statement that people could keep insurance companies, and recent EPA regulations on power plants.

"Therefore, be it resolved that the South Dakota Republican Party calls on our U.S. Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States," the resolution reads.

Allen Unruh of Sioux Falls sponsored the resolution.

"I've got a thick book on impeachable offenses of the president," Unruh said, calling on South Dakota to "send a symbolic message that liberty shall be the law of the land."

Delegate David Wheeler of Beadle County disagreed.

"I believe we should not use the power of impeachment for political purposes," Wheeler said. "By doing this, we would look petty, like we can't achieve our political goals through the political process."

Larry Eliason of Potter County agreed, noting that he opposed the impeachment resolution even though "the only thing (Obama's) done the last six years that I approve of is when he adopted a pet."

But Larry Klipp of Butte County, a retired Marine, said matters go beyond mere political disagreements with Obama.

"If anyone in this room cannot see the horrendous, traitorous scandals run by the Obama administration, I will pray for you," Klipp said.

Delegates voted 191-176 in favor of the resolution. The Pennington County delegation voted 47-9 in favor of the impeachment resolution, and Minnehaha County voted 28-15 in favor.

Rounds is afraid of getting in front of a camera and debating the issues in a way that will let South Dakota voters know where he stands. Maybe that's because he barely knows himself-- other than he always stands wherever his corporate donors tell him to stand. As of May 14, he had reported raising $3,090,858, almost all of it (95%) from big donors and corporate PACs, a great deal of it from outside South Dakota. Without the endorsement of the DSCC, Weiland has raised $833,271. You can help him catch up a little here.