Impeachment must be viewed in the context of the Democrats’ effort to destroy Donald Trump that began prior to his inauguration. For more than three years, their get-Trump campaign has dominated the news. Mostly, it was the Russia hoax. The Democrats originally intended to use that as the basis for impeachment. When the Mueller report negated that plan, they switched–literally overnight–to the much weaker Ukraine theory. No matter. It was impeachment or bust, if only to continue filling up the nightly news with purported Trump “scandals.”
Now the smoke will begin to clear, and I don’t think the Democrats will like the landscape that comes into focus. Their Iowa caucuses were a laughingstock. They made fools of themselves (Nancy Pelosi, especially) during Trump’s State of the Union speech. And, most seriously, they don’t have a presidential candidate. Joe Biden is in freefall, and the party’s elders, such as they are, concede that Bernie Sanders would be a disaster. Will they turn to “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg? Will Michael Bloomberg be their savior? Or will Hillary Clinton or John Kerry come out of retirement? I think they are grasping at straws.
For a long time now, the Democrats have used their hysterical attacks on President Trump to deflect attention from the real scandal–the misuse of the Obama administration’s Department of Justice, FBI and CIA to spy on, and plot against, the Trump presidential campaign and, subsequently, his administration. This is the biggest political scandal in American history, and the Democrats, with the Russia hoax, Ukraine and impeachment now a spent force, are naked, so to speak. One can only imagine with what anxiety they are awaiting the findings of John Durham’s investigation and any criminal indictments that may accompany them.
On the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sen. @RandPaul reads and displays the question which Chief Justice Roberts declined to read last week during the Impeachment Trial. pic.twitter.com/nxZb255IbU
I hope so. They’ve gotten away with too much, for far too long, going all the way back to the nineties, aided and abetted by the “mainstream” press.
[Update a few minutes later]
Link included now, sorry.
And there’s this: Yes, the president’s acquittal was real, and it was spectacular. And yes, the impeachment wasn’t just a waste of time; it was very damaging.
Shut it down. But punish those who have been abusing it. I suspect the Trump case is not the first one; they just made the mistake of going after a president.
Meanwhile, Carter Page is suing the DNC over the dossier. Perkins Coie hasn’t gotten enough attention. I hope that’s about to change.
If they insist on witnesses, I want to see Schiff on the stand, under oath.
[Update a few minutes later]
Someone on an email list I’m on questioned whether or not it would be permissible to force an impeachment manager on the stand. I see no reason why not; the Senate makes the rules.