This impeachment is dead
Published 12-19-2019
The Articles of Impeachment, as of Tuesday heading to the House Rules Committee on their way to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives is not going anywhere in the Senate. How do I know... not because I trust the Republican Senate caucus to stand strong in times of adversity. I’d rather try to herd cats than whip votes in that august body.
No, I know it’s dead because Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer basically said the Democrat’s decision to charge ahead with impeachment was not enough. Releasing a letter over the weekend to Senate Leader McConnell through the media rather than bothering to even transmit it via email to his counterpart seems more stunt than substance. In the letter Senator Schumer lays plain the strategy for the Senate Democrats, turn impeachment into another Kavanaugh hearing circus scenario by calling witnesses to try to make the case the House Democrats did not. The decision to move ahead, without waiting for courts to rule on the disagreement between Congress and the White House about Executive Privilege and the accessibility of the President’s advisors to Congressional oversight was part of the Democrat’s strategy. The play now in the Senate is to muddy the waters with testimony they they think they can use in lines of questioning to damage Trump. And because Republicans have signaled the House case is not strong enough for removing the President, the new mission is throw enough mud and see what will stick.
It seems highly doubtful this will move past the presentations by the House Managers before the Senate votes it down, as indicated by Leader McConnell on the Senate floor.
I’m looking forward to the continuing optics of impeachment, which is becoming more unpopular by the day, and Democrat Congress people getting absolutely roasted at town halls and district events by people who are tired of the theatrics on display in the Democrat led Congress.
And of course nothing these days happens in DC without some form of protest by the left, with another Resistance march on D.C. happening as I write this column.
The theatre can be entertaining, even if repetitive.
When politicians who are constantly implying intent to a “living, breathing constitution” that can change meaning depending on current societal whims start cherrypicking constitutional text and quoting the Founders out of context to support political narratives all my alarm bells start to go off.
Fairness only seems to matter to Democrats when they aren’t in charge of something and want to make political hay.
In the meantime, President Trump has been busy delivering on behalf of the American people, namely in the forms of jobs and rising wages. Instead of only record breaking Wall Street numbers, which are great in their own right, Main Street is finally seeing a little more success, which translates to a little relief for us regular folks.
And as all of this is occurring across our television screens what is everyone else doing...Tinsel and shopping, stringing lights and singing carols, baking cookies and attending Christmas concerts. The public has already moved on.
If there was an actual, fact based case for impeachment, the public wouldn’t be nearly as tuned out, and there would be a decent segment of Republicans, none a fan or Trump or his tactics, already making a case for his removal.
It’s the heights of cynicism, and the depths of politics to say that Republicans can not have witnessed the hearings and testimony as offered by the Intelligence and Judiciary committees and come to a conclusion about the facts as Democrats are asserting - and find it lacking. No matter how hard the Democrats try and moralize otherwise.