Updated: August 27, 2013, 9:27 AM
What good is a conservative fever dream if no one can make a buck off it, right?
The people behind WND, perhaps the pre-eminent online purveyor of conservative fever dreams, on Sunday created an “Impeachment Store” section for their website’s online retail “superstore.”
The timing couldn’t be better. Several members of Congress have recently discussed the possibility of President Obama’s impeachment. The issue made it all the way to the pages of The New York Times this weekend (hey, even the Grey Lady needs to fill pages in August?), and WND Books on Tuesday is set to publish a book titled “Impeachable Offenses: The Case for Removing Barack Obama from Office.” In an interview last week, one of the books co-authors told Buzzfeed that “Impeachable Offenses” had already pre-sold nearly 100,000 copies.
So, what’s for sale in the Impeachment Store? Right now, beside “Impeachable Offenses” (including autographed hardcovers), shoppers can choose from three different impeachment themed bumper stickers. One reads: “Honk For Impeachment.” Another says: “Lights On For Impeachment.” And then there is the classic: “Impeach Obama!” Shoppers can also purchase a “special report” titled “The Case for Impeachment,” which is, according to the product description, “an insightful summary of how President Barack Hussein Obama’s purposeful actions have jeopardized America’s ability to defend herself, undermined our free enterprise system, corrupted our democratic institutions and transferred massive amounts of power and wealth from American citizens to extremist special interest groups, whose loyalty lies not with our Constitution but with a global socialist movement.”
To learn more about the Impeachment Store, TPM got in touch on Monday with Joseph Farah, the founder, editor, and CEO of WND.
“Frankly, we’ve noticed a real increase in interest in the whole topic,” Farah told TPM in a phone interview. “Everybody is talking about impeachment. … We’ve got a very hot book on the subject. And I noticed that people who were buying the book were also buying bumper stickers, and so we decided we would make it easy for them.”
Referring to sales figures, Farah said the bumper stickers are “nowhere in the same ballpark” as “Impeachable Offenses.” Still, Farah said, “they have been among the most popular bumper stickers that we have, and we have quite a few.”
TPM asked Farah about a comment one of the co-authors of “Impeachable Offenses” made to Politico last week, about the plans to distribute the book to lawmakers. Aaron Klein told Politico that “[w]e plan to be working with a member of Congress who likes the book and has agreed to allow his/her office to serve as a conduit distribution source.” But it sounds like no member of Congress has yet agreed to such a deal.
“We have been looking for a member of Congress who would be willing to use their office to allow us to make these available, and I’m confident we will,” Farah said. “But so far I can’t tell you who is going to volunteer, and I probably won’t do that at any time in the future either.”
Farah said he was a bit surprised that impeachment was becoming such a hot topic, in part because even he admits that impeaching Obama is a long shot.
“Look, if you take this from a pragmatic political perspective, it’s highly unlikely,” Farah said. “Knowing the characteristics of the leadership of the House. Not the membership. Not the Republican members. But the leadership of the House — very, very cautious about taking on Obama in any way. And the fact that you have a Democratic Senate.”
That said, Farah alluded to the efforts of former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) during the Clinton years, and said that “stranger things have happened.” Besides, Farah said, impeachment is a “political act,” which he thinks makes it less easy for critics to attack than the issue WND harped on during Obama’s first term: birtherism.
“I think that this is pure politics here,” Farah said, referring to impeachment. “I mean, [bitherism] was viewed as something that went beyond politics. It was easy to characterize it as something that went beyond politics. That went to… I can’t tell you how many times I was called a racist because I questioned the constitutional eligibility of the guy in the White House.”
So does Farah have an impeach bumper sticker on his own car?
“I don’t have any bumper stickers on my car,” Farah said. “But if I did, I think I’d have an impeachment bumper sticker.”
Correction: This article in one instance incorrectly spelled the name of WND’s founder, editor, and CEO. His name is Joseph Farah, not Joseph Farrah.
Images via WND / Composite by TPM
