The "He Said, She Said" Impeachment

If you've been paying attention at all to the impeachment follies, you probably have an opinion.

If you think it's been proven that President Trump has committed bribery to get dirt on his political opponent, Joe Biden, that he has broken the law in several different ways, and that he has obstructed justice by refusing to cooperate with what he calls a sham, then this probably isn't the place for you.  You have hated Trump since day one, the hatred has built to a crescendo and you feel that no punishment is adequate to hold him accountable for irretrievably damaging the country.  So move on to some echo chamber that can confirm your views.  It would make you happier and your blood pressure probably would remain under control.

My view is different.  I think I've expressed it pretty well since this whole idiotic charade started over the past few weeks.  You can go back and refresh if you'd like.

If you've been paying attention at all you're aware of the testimony by former Ambassador Yovanovitch in the circus called an impeachment inquiry yesterday.  It was quite the dramatic theater.  I won't provide detail for every little thing she said but let me give you a layman's interpretation.  She is a 30 year career Foreign Service officer.  She has been detailed all over the world but in looking at her bio, it appears to me that her expertise is in Eastern Europe.  She is smart, well educated, experienced, a patriot and a dedicated civil servant.  She had achieved what is the epitome for a foreign service officer, namely an Ambassadorship.  No matter what happens for the rest of her life, her title is Ambassador and she will receive appropriate respect.  But Ukraine is no bed of roses.  Corruption is endemic.  The Russians have invaded and are barking at the doors.  And their names are incredibly difficult to pronounce.  I'm sure she did some things right and was challenged in many areas.  She is used to working within the construct of diplomatic norms of a U.S. President's administration.  She feels comfortable there.  This means she had rules and regulations that she knew really well and could work within those boundaries with no problem.  I don't know this 100% but I bet she was a huge fan of Obama and solidly in Hillary's camp.  That is just logical.  I'm positive (but have no evidence) that she went to more than one cocktail party or diplomatic soiree and rolled her eyes when Trump was mentioned.  Then the unthinkable happens.  Trump wins.  And everything she knows, everything she has done for 30 years, every norm that she has worked to achieve is turned upside down.  Overnight she has to work within a construct of "America first", and that is a huge diplomatic unknown.  I didn't watch the whole thing, but what I did watch was painful.  She was clearly befuddled and baffled by the new President.  As I've commented in many, many other posts on this blog, he is a rough and tumble New York businessman and can be an insufferable jerk.  I would never want to work for him!  That he fired her was probably inevitable.  She not only was too much of what he views as a swamp creature, but in her answers she was not aggressive at all in defending both him and America.  I thought that the most interesting comment from her was a lament that they didn't have to be so mean in firing her.  But that's who they are.  If you're going to play, you gotta be tough.  I'm sure she's tough in her own way, but not in the way that was needed.

The other hugely important thing that she said is that she can identify no law that he broke and no impeachable offense that he made.  There is simply nothing there.  So that's sorta it.

Now others will testify next week but if there's not more than they've paraded so far, the Dems don't have close to enough.  It all seems to be a "he said, she said" drama with nothing more than operating outside conventional, generally accepted swamp dweller norms.  The thing I can't wrap my arms around is these reports of the conversation between Ambassador Sondland and Trump in which there are indications that Trump cared more about investigations than Ukraine.  So what?  It's a conversation.  Of course he cares about investigations.  He feels his charter in this area is to root out corruption.  And he feels that the Biden's are at the center of it.  But we'll see where it goes.  For me it's a big nothing burger.

So it should be a fun week.  As I've said previously, it's all good theater.  And when it gets to the Senate, it'll get even juicier.  People lament that nothing is getting done, but my view is that while they are tied up with this bullshit, at least they aren't making more laws to screw us over.