Something very strange is happening on Capitol Hill. Democrats can’t talk enough about impeaching a president of their own party. And Republicans keep saying that there isn’t a chance they’ll give it a try. 
 
 With just three days left until Congress recesses for the month of August, Democrats have successfully kept alive the idea that Speaker John Boehner is mulling impeaching President Barack Obama — an option the Ohio Republican insists he isn’t pursuing. 
 
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 reset Boehner: No plans for impeachment 
 
 It’s not enough that Boehner’s House is preparing to sue the president over his use of executive authority; Democrats are busily trying to craft a narrative that the president will shortly be on trial in the Capitol. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Scott Brown rejects impeachment) 
 
 The tactic has brought big dollars into Democrats’ coffers, and it has kept Republican aides and lawmakers busy as they keep swatting down the idea whenever it sprouts up. 
 
 “No, no, no, no,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Greg Walden (Ore.) said emphatically when asked about the possibility of impeachment hearings or proceedings in the House against Obama. “Democrats are the ones talking about it, and they’re trying to fundraise off it.” 
 
 Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican close to Boehner and incoming Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), said there are “very few” Republicans who want to “move to impeachment.” 
 
 “The key is to make sure that Obama is not getting away with these executive orders, which is why we’re trying to bring this court case forward,” Nunes said of impending House legal action against Obama. “That’s the goal.” 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Pfeiffer: Don’t ‘discount’ threat to impeach) 
 
 This idea that House Republicans are considering efforts to remove Obama from office isn’t completely unfounded. A small group of hardline GOP lawmakers have discussed it, even raising the taboo topic during a closed-door GOP meeting last week. And Rep. Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Republican who will become whip on Thursday, pointedly and repeatedly refused to rule out impeaching Obama in a Sunday appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” 
 
 There is some concern within GOP leadership that the movement could swell if Obama soon takes unilateral action to halt the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Congress will be out of session for all of August, and many lawmakers will be spending time with their constituents back home in their solidly conservative districts, with the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border simmering. These are not prime conditions for moderation. 
 
 The central question that Boehner faces now until Election Day is whether House Republicans will trust his assessment that trying to remove the president from office is an absolute waste of time. Boehner made a similar argument against shutting the government down last October — and his own colleagues didn’t listen, leading to a 16-day government shutdown that could have proven disastrous to the party had the bungled rollout of Obamacare not revived their fortunes. 
 
 This time, Boehner appears to have the vast majority of House Republicans on his side. Conservatives like Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Louie Gohmert of Texas have spoken out against impeachment, noting that it will be impossible to remove Obama from the White House. Overreach from Boehner’s chamber could boost Democratic popularity — as it did in 1998, when Congress tried to remove Bill Clinton from office. Plus, the effort would meet a certain death from Democrats in the Senate. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Poll: One-third say impeach Obama) 
 
 “I don’t think it would be a problem getting a majority of votes out of the House” to impeach Obama, said a conservative House Republican. “But once it got to the Senate, it’s not going to go anywhere. … Not everybody is going to agree with this, but we got a lot on our plate right now of things we’ve got to fix immediately rather than doing some type of symbolic action.” 
 
 Yet even with impeachment off table — or nearly so — Congress and the White House are on a collision course on a whole host of issues. The House GOP-authored bill to deal with the influx of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border has not yet been unveiled. If it makes it to the House floor and passes — expected to happen later this week — it will be dead on arrival in the Senate. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) chamber is going to have a tough time passing its own bill. No legislation to deal with the crisis will make it to Obama’s desk before Congress leaves for the August recess. 
 
 And when Congress returns in September, it has to work together to fund the government as the Senate — locked in a partisan battle between Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — has yet to approve any of the 2015 spending bills, much less hash out a deal with the House over its funding proposals. 
 
 And if that goes off track, the federal government is at risk of shutting down just weeks before the midterm election. Such a scenario is considered very unlikely by lawmakers and aides on both sides of the aisle in both chambers, but in the current Congress, anything — or almost anything — is possible. 
 
 Follow @politico ||||| "Sorry to email you late on a Friday, but I need your urgent support," Nancy Pelosi wrote me. 
 
 The House minority leader went on to explain that, "for the first time in history, Congress voted to sue a sitting president." And "Today: the White House alerted us that they believe 'Speaker Boehner … has opened the door to impeachment.' 
 
 "What Republicans are doing to President Obama is historic — and offensive," she wrote. And, then in a bright bold red text that can't be done justice in black and white, she chided me, "With everything happening right now, I'm a little disappointed to see that you haven't had a chance to chip in to defend President Obama. 
 
 "Jonah — we could use your support today." 
 
 Nancy (apparently we're on a first-name basis) went on to promise that ALL GIFTS ARE TRIPLE MATCHED! 
 
 This was only one of a bushel of such emails from the Democratic Party. I particularly like the ones from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee referring to the "red alert impeachment deadline," complete with a scoreboard slowly ticking upward toward $2 million. "We now have a shot at hitting our $2,000,000 goal to defend the President — and defeat Boehner's Republican House." 
 
 No doubt as karmic payback for grave sins I committed in a past life, I am on all of the Democratic fundraising lists. In terms of whipped-up urgency aimed at low-information voters, there's nothing special about these importuning missives. I can't count how many times I've been told that if I don't chip in $5 — right now! — the Koch brothers will throw another puppy into the furnace of their land-raping dynamo. 
 
 But what is interesting about these emails is the transparent glee. Far more than Republicans, Democrats love talking about impeachment. Not just Pelosi and the DCCC, but White House spokesman Josh Earnest, Obama advisor Dan Pfeiffer and First Lady Michelle Obama all chummed the waters with the I-word, igniting a frenzy among reporters who pretend that this is a real thing. 
 
 Given Obama's famously low regard for the Clinton presidency, it's ironic that he keeps stealing from its playbook. - 
 
 Ostensibly the hook for all of this is John Boehner's decision to sue Obama for abusing presidential authority. Pfeiffer said Friday that the suit "opened the door to impeachment." But pretty much everyone in Washington knows that the political motivation for the lawsuit is to close, not open, those doors. 
 
 The president constantly talks about the evils of cynicism as if denouncing the alleged dishonesty of others demonstrates his own honesty. In 2008 he said cynicism was his real opponent. Last week at an L.A. fundraiser, he returned to the theme, calling Republicans liars and bamboozlers. 
 
 The cynicism of Obama's war on cynicism is breathtaking. He's wasted so much of his presidency demonizing political opponents as deranged radicals who need to shut up and get in line. Even now he is thumping the podium about "economic patriotism," as if loyalty to his views on taxation is the only proof of 100% Americanism. 
 
 Last fall, Obama did nearly everything he could to be thrown into the briar patch of a government shutdown in order to denounce the Republicans for shutting down the government. When it went into effect, the administration endeavored to make the shutdown as painful as possible — a replay of a similar scheme with the sequester — so he could arouse the public against his political foes. 
 
 Given Obama's famously low regard for the Clinton presidency, it's ironic that he keeps stealing from its playbook. Bill Clinton benefited from a government shutdown and impeachment and from the general perception his enemies were worse than his sins. The difference is that while Clinton was hardly immune to the charge of cynicism, he wasn't trying to shut down the government or get impeached for narrow political advantage. 
 
 Now the president is reportedly considering a unilateral amnesty of millions of immigrants here illegally, knowing full well it will spark a fierce political backlash and heighten impeachment talk. No doubt he thinks it's the right thing to do on the merits, with his famous pen and phone. What's less clear is if the merits are his top priority. 
 
 jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com 
 
 Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion 
 
 
 

– The word "impeachment" is getting tossed around a lot on Capitol Hill and on political talk shows these days, but Politico takes note of a "very strange" twist: It's Democrats who keep bringing it up, while Republicans keep insisting they have no intention of going there. The thing is, Democrats aren't just whispering about it—they're sending out red-alert emails with "transparent glee," writes Jonah Goldberg at the Los Angeles Times. The reason is simple: fundraising. "We now have a shot at hitting our $2,000,000 goal to defend the President—and defeat Boehner's Republican House," reads one recent missive from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The strategy plays off Republicans' decision to try to sue the White House over perceived abuses of executive privilege, but stretching that into an impeachment threat strikes Goldberg as cynical politics from a president who constantly rails against, yes, cynicism in politics. The Obama White House is again borrowing from the playbook of Bill Clinton, who actually benefited from an impeachment threat, he writes. "The difference is that while Clinton was hardly immune to the charge of cynicism, he wasn't trying to shut down the government or get impeached for narrow political advantage." Click for Goldberg's full column.