Impeachment won't hurt the Democratic Party: CNN analyst

CNN analyst Ron Brownstein told Democrats to wake up and look beyond the 1998 election as an example for why impeachment isn't the election killer that they think it is.

In an Atlantic post, Brownstein explained that Democrats are learning the wrong lesson.

"You look two years after the Republicans House impeached Bill Clinton, against the opposition of the majority of the country, in January 2001, Republicans controlled the House, White House, and Senate, unified control of the government," he explained.

Part of the problem is that people cut off their observations at 1998, he said. They aren't looking at elections that still involved Clinton.

"Impeachment and conditions surrounding Bill Clinton personally radiated through both those elections. It's true in 1998 Democrats gained seats in the House elections. It was the first time since 1834 that a president's party gained seats in the sixth year of his term. Obviously, there was some cost. But it wasn't a huge loss," he continued.

Indeed, Republicans lost five seats; Democrats won the popular vote in the 2000 election that the Supreme Court decided, and they won the majority of Independent voters.

Brownstein noted that there were 91 Republicans in districts that voted for Clinton and four lost their seats.

"Of course, Republicans maintained control of the House," he said. "They lost two more seats in they maintained control of the House, won the national popular vote again and George W. Bush won the presidency this year."

Brownstein urged Democrats to wake up and stop being afraid.

What he neglects to mention, however, is that Democrats don't have control of both houses of Congress. So filing articles of impeachment and handing the job over to Republicans likely won't end well for the Democrats.

Watch his commentary below: