by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Yesterday Massachusetts' Senator Elizabeth Warren added her name to a growing list of prominent U.S. politicians and patriots who believe that the House of Representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against Donald John Trump. No one, at least no one with any marked political clout in this country, actually believes that there are the votes or resolve in the United States Senate to remove Trump from office, but many would like to see him officially impeached by the House nonetheless.
The impeachment of Trump by the House of Representatives would be, they hope, a soothing balm for the nation's tortured soul.
The young Turks in the House seem to be lining up in favor of impeachment, but the old hands like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, both verging on becoming octogenarians, are pulling on the brakes with all of their might. They prefer the more calm and guarded approach of waiting until the fall of 2020 and letting the American people attempt to rid the country of the Trump administration through the ballot box.
It's been a mere two decades since the country's last impeachment crisis, that of Bill Clinton. The House officially impeached Clinton over his sordid sexual conduct within the White House with a barely-legal female intern. The House actually passed two impeachment charges which were the result of Clinton's sleazy sexual behavior: one accused him of perjury before a grand jury, and the other was for obstruction of justice. The House of Representatives was controlled by the Republican Party at the time Clinton was impeached.
The Senate was also controlled by the Republican Party (55-45) when the impeachment charges came before the Senate. In order to remove Clinton from office, two-thirds of the senators (67) would have had to vote in favor. Only 50 senators voted in favor of removal on the obstruction charge, and a mere 45 went along with the perjury charge. A senate controlled by Republicans failed miserably in an attempt to remove a President whom many of them literally hated.
A Democratic House might impeach Donald Trump, an act that would merit a footnote in the history books, but the chances of a Republican Senate voting to remove him from office are virtually non-existent. Bill Clinton's popularity rose after the failed attempt to end his presidency by a process other than an election, and Trump's popularity would also undoubtedly inflate as he used the failed attempt at political removal as yet one more example of how he was being persecuted by those terrible, awful Democrats.
An attempt to remove Donald Trump from office at this time through the impeachment process might make many of us feel better, but it would also play right into Trump's political hand. He's a pig, not a victim - and making him look like a victim gives him a strength that he has neither earned nor deserves.
I hate to agree with Pelosi and Hoyer, my God I hate to agree with them, but impeaching Donald Trump at this time is the wrong move. It's less than nineteen months before Trump stands for re-election, and right now the efforts of all Democrats need to be focused on things like recruiting superior candidates for office and registering voters. This is the time to organize!
Donald Trump and the malignancy of Trumpism must be eradicated at the polls, cut from the body politic by the aggressive show of electoral force from the voters. Only then will we be able to begin the self-healing that our country so desperately needs. America without Trump can once again be on the road to greatness!
Citizen Journalist
Yesterday Massachusetts' Senator Elizabeth Warren added her name to a growing list of prominent U.S. politicians and patriots who believe that the House of Representatives should begin impeachment proceedings against Donald John Trump. No one, at least no one with any marked political clout in this country, actually believes that there are the votes or resolve in the United States Senate to remove Trump from office, but many would like to see him officially impeached by the House nonetheless.
The impeachment of Trump by the House of Representatives would be, they hope, a soothing balm for the nation's tortured soul.
The young Turks in the House seem to be lining up in favor of impeachment, but the old hands like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, both verging on becoming octogenarians, are pulling on the brakes with all of their might. They prefer the more calm and guarded approach of waiting until the fall of 2020 and letting the American people attempt to rid the country of the Trump administration through the ballot box.
It's been a mere two decades since the country's last impeachment crisis, that of Bill Clinton. The House officially impeached Clinton over his sordid sexual conduct within the White House with a barely-legal female intern. The House actually passed two impeachment charges which were the result of Clinton's sleazy sexual behavior: one accused him of perjury before a grand jury, and the other was for obstruction of justice. The House of Representatives was controlled by the Republican Party at the time Clinton was impeached.
The Senate was also controlled by the Republican Party (55-45) when the impeachment charges came before the Senate. In order to remove Clinton from office, two-thirds of the senators (67) would have had to vote in favor. Only 50 senators voted in favor of removal on the obstruction charge, and a mere 45 went along with the perjury charge. A senate controlled by Republicans failed miserably in an attempt to remove a President whom many of them literally hated.
A Democratic House might impeach Donald Trump, an act that would merit a footnote in the history books, but the chances of a Republican Senate voting to remove him from office are virtually non-existent. Bill Clinton's popularity rose after the failed attempt to end his presidency by a process other than an election, and Trump's popularity would also undoubtedly inflate as he used the failed attempt at political removal as yet one more example of how he was being persecuted by those terrible, awful Democrats.
An attempt to remove Donald Trump from office at this time through the impeachment process might make many of us feel better, but it would also play right into Trump's political hand. He's a pig, not a victim - and making him look like a victim gives him a strength that he has neither earned nor deserves.
I hate to agree with Pelosi and Hoyer, my God I hate to agree with them, but impeaching Donald Trump at this time is the wrong move. It's less than nineteen months before Trump stands for re-election, and right now the efforts of all Democrats need to be focused on things like recruiting superior candidates for office and registering voters. This is the time to organize!
Donald Trump and the malignancy of Trumpism must be eradicated at the polls, cut from the body politic by the aggressive show of electoral force from the voters. Only then will we be able to begin the self-healing that our country so desperately needs. America without Trump can once again be on the road to greatness!
1 comment:
While I concur in your reasoning, I respectfully disagree.
The other shoes have yet to fall. Trump appears complicit in a wide range of criminal conduct apart from issues regarding Russia.
The Trump family tax scandal looms large. Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, was a federal judge before she abruptly resigned while facing inquiry into the family's criminal tax scheme; a scheme in which Donald Trump was fully engaged.
Among the redactions in the Mueller Report there are a dozen shrouded criminal investigations. America needs to see those matters, especially if Trump is the target and if he was not indicted soley because he is the sitting President. The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel is of the opinion that the Department may not indict a sitting President.
The Emoluments Clause, U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8, forbids the exact kind of Presidential profiteering in which Trump engages on a daily basis. An impeachment inquiry can shed light on which tyrants, which oligarchs, which enemies of the United States are greasing the proverbial Presidential skids. That muck at the bottom of the Trump swamp needs airing.
No doubt these examples only scratch the surface but if Democrats proceed timidly on a tactic of not impeaching Trump then America will not have the facts it needs to make the informed decision at the polls in 2020.
As you mentioned impeachment is not removal from office. The House of Representatives holds public hearings, amasses evidence, then weighs that evidence to determine if Trump's conduct is sufficient to fall into the broad category of "high crimes and misdemeanors". The impeachment is the indictment not the removal from office.
The Senate conducts the trial to determine whether the impeached President will be removed from office. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides at that trial. The evidence will speak. And if the House has done its due diligence in preparing the Articles of Impeachment then the dots will be present and the lines connecting them will have been drawn.
Dots and lines are important because those lines will cross the boundaries of sitting United States Senators. Senators complicit in the capitulation of America's cyber sovereignty. Complicit because Russian rubles have found their way into their campaign coffers. In this regard certain Senators will be on trial before their constituents. The facts must speak loudly. A vote not to remove Trump from office by a Senator who is on the take is a vote for Vladimir Putin.
Bill Clinton was a pig. But his piggery with a young intern was not the crime of rape or sexual assault, it was consensual. The Senate considering the removal of Bill Clinton was well aware that Bill Clinton's team knew the sexual proclivities of each Senator. Retribution for Clinton's removal would have been brutal.
The Republican Party suffered losses as much because their strategy informed a generation of young girls, and boys, of oral sex. Parents were not happy. Yes they blamed Clinton for being the swine he was. They also blamed Newt Gingrich and House Republicans for opening up that can of worms.
Speaking of can of worms, Clinton entered into a non prosecution agreement with the DOJ on the last day of his term. He paid a fine and relinquished his law license for five years. The Supreme Court of Arkansas disbarred him. With a fixer as Attorney General, Bill Barr, I have no doubt that Trump would skate with a slap on one of his tiny hands.
Only by going through the impeachment process, discovering and making public the facts, and then requiring the Senators to take a stand will Justice be Served.
FOX News and their viewers will not agree. FOX News, however, has sued and prevailed on the issue that they are not required to tell the truth; they are entertainment.
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