Former W.H. lawyer: Lawsuit beyond 'frivolous'

House Republicans' brewing lawsuit against President Barack Obama for executive overreach has no standing, former White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler says.

Ruemmler said Sunday that even House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) knows the lawsuit is going nowhere, deeming it part of an election-year playbook from the GOP. Indeed, if it does nothing else, the lawsuit will at least foster unity among Republicans ahead of the November election.

“You have to show some kind of concrete injury. And, you know, I think Speaker John Boehner knows that as well as anybody. I don’t think the Congress can show any injury here,” Ruemmler said on NBC’s “Meet the Press. “To say it’s frivolous is an understatement.”

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Congress could use its power of the purse or other legislative maneuvers, she said, to express its displeasure with the president if it wanted to seriously protest the White House. The lack of clarity around the lawsuit, she said, reveals the politics behind it.

“The speaker hasn’t actually said what he’s going to sue the president under. And I think that’s pretty telling,” Ruemmler said.

Asked if she thinks the House could go further and impeach the president for executive overreach, Ruemmler said: “That would be extreme and unwarranted.”

Ruemmler was Obama’s counsel from 2011 to May 2014.