A few thoughts:
“Never do an enemy a small injury”
Machiavelli, The Prince.
The Democrats are ignoring this lesson to their own peril.
"Be careful what you ask for in life, you may get it."
Now that the President has been impeached, the worst is behind him. This date most likely marks the nadir of the Trump Presidency. It doesn't feel like a low point for the President, does it? It doesn't feel like a victory for the Democrats does it?
This moment will be marked and debated and raised by both sides right through election day in November, 2019. The voters will decide, but we cannot help but feel that this is net-positive for the President.
Item: The RNC and Trump reelection campaign raised over ten million dollars from small donor contributions within the last week.
Prediction: Two of the next three presidents will be impeached. Impeachment has been cheapened and will become a political tool for the party controlling Congress when a President from the other party occupies the White House. Abuse of power is such a nebulous and flexible concept that it will be applied as the measuring stick for the next twenty years against Presidents, and when the other party controls Congress, few will measure up.
We will update this as further thoughts strike us throughout the evening and tomorrow.
16 comments:
Rumpole: Isn't Trump the third president in U.S. History to be impeached? The other two were Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
I won’t ask you why you said the second President to be impeached (Johnson, Clinton, Trump) or why you said Election Day was going to happen in November of 2019, but I will agree with you 100% that this process will result in a lot more of the same crap happening a lot more often in the next four decades than in the previous four.
Third President impeached. Johnson, Clinton, and now Trump.
Full of types and errors today. Election day is in 2020, not 2019.
ABC News Reports:
In his first comments since Congress voted to impeach president Trump on Wednesday, Putin accused Democrats of trying to remove Trump using "other means," having lost the 2016 presidential elections.
"It is simply a continuation of an internal political battle," Putin continued. "And the party that lost the elections, the Democrat party is trying to achieve results with other ways, with other means. Bringing accusations against Trump of a conspiracy with Russia, later it becomes clear there was no conspiracy. It cannot lie at the basis of impeachment."
Shallow thinking as usual.
Impeachment all but confirmed every time now there is a WH/House split.
What's more, Pelosi just gave up Ginsberg's seat in order to appease zealous freshman reps like AOC, who were emboldened enough to publicly call her a coward.
Book it: Trump wins 2020, Ginsberg, Breyer and Thomas seats all filled by Trump. Pelosi ages out, bitter and sad, while AOC's dumb celebrity continues on, with Dems scratching their heads as to why they lost Scotus for a generation or two.
Had Pelosi been able to exercise some frigging discipline on her ranks, the Dems could have actually sold themselves as reasonable patriots in 2020 (and compared to Trump, how easy this would have been). Instead, they are partisan hacks, as rabid as he is, spending double digit millions on impeachment inquiries that lead to no removal.
Great job, Dems
"Impeachment has been cheapened and will become a political tool for the party controlling Congress when a President from the other party occupies the White House."
Democrats aren't worried about this. They figure they will always be the party controlling Congress because of imminent demographic changes which are supposed to bring about inevitable "Permanent Democratic Majority."
They thought they had already achieved this in 2008. They were pretty sure again in 2016. Though whenever it comes, the Democrats act as if it's already here and done.
Trump is celebrating. Pelosi just guaranteed his re-election. What would have been a close race is now a runaway. She played right into his hands. Trump will play the victim/underdo to Pelosi's grandstanding hamhandedness. There are millions of voters who would have either stayed home or voted Democrat who will now get off their lazy butts, turn off the TV, put down the chicken wings, step out of their trailer park homes into their 20 year old pick ups and vote for Trump.
I don't care what my Republican friends say or do, but, instructing witnesses not to honor a subpoena legally served is a serious crime.
Rumpole: Trump is actually the third president impeached by Congress. Not the second. The first two were Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.
433
The executive branch of government is coequal to the legislative branch. The executive branch disputes the legality of the subpoenas issued by the legislative branch. In our democracy, disputes like these between the branches are resolved through the judicial branch. So if the legislative branch thinks they have a good case the subpoenas are valid, they go to the courts. They can even seek sanctions if they believe the executive branch's position was taken in bad faith. They can even ask for the litigation to be expedited.
If the legislative branch went to the courts and won, and the executive branch defied an order of the courts, then perhaps there would be a good case to impeach the president for obstruction. But the Democrats did not want to wait for the judicial process to play out, for political reasons it appears.
It is what it is. But it is not impeachable obstruction. It is actually quite routine.
433
Biden started that if subpoenaed for the impeachment trial in the Senate, he would not comply with the subpoena. So if failing to comply with a subpoena is a high crime and misdemeanor as "obstruction of Congress", does bidens statement mean he is not fit to be president?
If trump subpoenas Biden, hunter, or schiff in the Senate trial, i have a feeling all this reverence for subpoenas goes away...
I believe based on the evidence I have seen, impeachment was req’d. No matter what happens in the senate. That being said, I think there should be standard rules of procedure adopted, applicable to every Future senate trial. Exactly what those rules are should be debated by legal scholars. The rules should not change depending on who is being impeached, and who is doing the impeaching. We need this to ensure fairness. To insure it’s not viewed as a kangaroo court. To insure one side can not turn it into a spectacle. And to insure the process can not be hijacked by one side or the other for political purposes. Removal of a President or other impeachable official is too fucking serious.
@12:50
"Exactly what those rules are should be debated by legal scholars" - hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
As I read this, I imagined the comic book nerd from the Simpsons was writing it.
Worst impeachment ever.
At last a comment by Putin!! It's about time the master comes to the defense of the dog. No one can deny that every international move Trump makes serves the interests of Russia in general and Putin in particular. The facts of the case are not only unrefuted but established by the presidents lackeys. Then he doesn't defend himself or allow his boys Mulvany or Bolton to testify. Why would he be scared of Mulvany and Bolton speaking under oath? Because he knows what they are going to say? This is a slam dunk case by any standard. Whether one doesn't believe he should be impeached anyway is one thing but the facts have been established and they are not good.
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