Yikes! As the old song goes..."Is that all there is"? So there were two "star" witnesses today. I think it would be fundamental to start off any big event, and indeed any event, with the best you have to offer. I didn't see that today. I had some time on my hands today so I watched a lot of the initial hearings and I've got to say it was pretty much as I had expected except that the Dems didn't remotely make their case, based on these two witnesses.
Don't get me wrong. These two guys, Taylor and Kent, are knowledgeable civil servants who are dedicated to the country and have a great deal of expertise. They made a big deal out of the fact that they were just giving their observations and opinions. And that is the problem. The observations were second, third and fourth hand and the opinions were just that...opinions. This isn't a court of law but if it were they wouldn't have gotten very far. No lawyer in the world would allow this kind of hearsay testimony.
The only big or new thing that happened (according to the media) was that Taylor relayed that a member of his staff had overheard a phone call in which another diplomat who has access to Trump said that Trump cares more about the Biden's than Ukraine. Huh? More hearsay. And even if he heard it directly so what? It's another opinion.
I hate to say this but these two guys struck me as the epitome of State Dept people. Very sure of themselves, very superior, convinced they are the smartest people in the room. In short...insufferable. This was confirmed to me when Taylor was being pressed by Republicans on what law was broken that he had direct knowledge of. He clearly was frustrated and said that it disrupted our diplomatic and policy objectives with the Ukraine. But here's the deal. He doesn't get to set the diplomatic and policy objectives. That's in the purview of the President. And he serves at the pleasure of the President. Full stop.
The other thing that these guys admitted was that they never talked to Trump, Mulvaney, Pompeo, or anyone else in the chain of command about their concerns. Why is that? Could it be that they really didn't want to get resolution of their concerns but instead were waiting until they could get their moment in the sun to accuse the President of impeachable offenses? Don't know but it's pretty highly suspicious.
I also think the Dems had a big whiff. They have clearly stacked the deck by not allowing Republicans to call witnesses, by refusing to allow the so-called whistleblower to testify, and by implementing rules that stifle the Republicans. It really seems like just a show.
If today is any indicator, two things are apparent. First is that the Dems are going to vote for impeachment. Second is that the Republicans are unified against it. So that will result in nothing happening when it gets to the Senate. My big hope is that at some point cooler heads in both parties will realize that a partisan impeachment is just about the worst thing that could happen to the country.
The big caveat that I would offer is that this is the epitome of Miles Law..."where you stand depends on where you sit". Everyone sees this through the prism of their opinions. Mine is that this is pretty much bullshit.
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