The House Intelligence Committee completed it's so-called impeachment inquiry this week after two weeks of testimony. The witnesses seemed to be mostly deep state actors who were largely critical of President Trump. They were for the most part career diplomats or staffers who by their words and body language have a clear disdain and disapproval of Trump. There was the odd political appointee but even though appointed by Trump, didn't seem all that loyal to him. I'm not saying they should be loyal to a fault, but their language again didn't engender confidence in his decisions. But there was one thing they all had in common. Not one of them could point to any laws that were broken. And all of them agreed that he was eager to go after corruption in Ukraine.
I said at the outset of these hearings, that his actions could be interpreted two ways. You can read it here. I now think there is a third. I think that there is a lot of evidence (despite what the cool and confident Ambassador Fiona Hill said) that corruption has been rampant in the Ukraine and some of it lent itself to disruption of the U.S. elections in 2016. One of the things Trump won on was a determination to root out corruption. When the new Ukrainian President was elected on the same platform, at some point Trump decided to see if he could help. I think the Biden thing was an aside. That Joe and Hunter were up to their eyeballs in corruption in Ukraine is undeniable. The compliant media will deny it, but any thinking person can read just a few accounts and see what was going on. It's probably so complicated and convoluted that we'll never find out though.
I'm not surprised that the Dems are outraged and making all kinds of statements about Trump's unlawful behavior and that he deserves to be impeached and removed. That is their agenda. It doesn't matter what the evidence says. I am a bit surprised that the Republicans have stood together. I thought they'd do their typical thing and a few of them would cave. But that doesn't appear to be the case. But we'll see. I'm also not surprised that the compliant media is solidly in the impeachment camp. They hate him and will do anything to get rid of him.
One group continues to surprise me though. The traditional Republicans and others who have become never-Trumpers continue to do damage to Trump. They just can't or won't understand his convention shattering methods. They seem to mired in another era (Reagan?) and yearn for a genteel leader who will amicably roll over and capitulate on his principles as long as he doesn't break the norms for conventional behavior accepted inside the beltway. A good example is one of my favorite writers, Peggy Noonan. She wrote a column this week called "Trump's Defenders Have No Defense". You can read it here. In any argument about this whole issue, you can make arguments for both sides that have validity. But I think Peggy lets his overall behavior overshadow the incident in question. It's a frustrating for those of us who see him for what he is and can stomach the rudeness, the arrogance, the crassness and all of his other foibles if he will continue to wage war against the deep state.
Here's another thing that I think was pretty interesting. Many of the witnesses seemed to intimate that the biggest crime the President committed was not not listening to his advisers and following long-standing conventional policy. As if the President of the United States doesn't have the right to set his own policy. It was a good example of the power and resistance that has come to define some of these bureaucrats.
So now it will go to the Judiciary committee and they are likely to draft articles of impeachment. It will be another one-sided show and then will move on to the Senate. If you think the House hearings have been a lot of drama, wait til it gets to the Senate. Because that is when both sides can call witnesses and tell their side of the story. It will be ugly, acrimonious, and unsuccessful. The Republicans have the majority, simple as that. And even though it's a thin majority, you need 67 votes to convict. I can't remotely imagine that many Republican Senators deserting the President. At least I can't today based on what's been presented. If there is some bombshell that is unanticipated, then that's a different story.
But for me here's the bottom line. I can't believe and really am saddened to believe that these Congressmen, Congresswomen, and Senators are willing to let an impeachment of the President move forward, either out of Congress or to a vote by Senators that is so one-sided, partisan, and doesn't remotely have ironclad proof. This is terrible for the country and makes them look like hacks. Shame on them.
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