Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Impeachment...the Fizzle

I admit that I couldn't watch much of the Judiciary Committee hearings on impeachment.  You may have seen my post last week on Four Lawyers.  I didn't watch much of that one either.  Just enough to get the gist of what was going on.  And then yesterday they had the two lawyers testifying on the Intelligence Committee hearing outcomes.  And in a sort of very weird scenario the Dem lawyer was able to go up to sit with members and question the Republican lawyer.  It's all very bizarre.  I did catch a few snippets throughout the day and it might just have been the most predictable back and forth that I've ever seen.  We all know what both sides think.  We all know how they are going to vote.  We all know their minds are made up.  We all know who hates Trump and who doesn't.

And so we've had I don't know how long of a build up to the moment of Articles of Impeachment.  We've heard that there are a multitude of charges based on the Ukrainian nonsense and that they have him dead to rights on many very specific things.  That he has broken the law in so many very specific ways that there's almost too many to count.  Today was to be the day.  The day they nail Trump with specific charges that will result in removal from office.  So what happened?  Well, the best I can tell there are two charges.  The first is "abuse of power" and the second is "obstruction of Congress".  Huh?  Really?  I mean seriously...as I said at the very beginning...is that all there is?  My expectation is that Trump's lawyers will have a field day with this.  Here's the Reader's Digest version.  They say he abused power because he fulfilled his Presidential duties of working with foreign leaders.  He abused his power because he executed his policies.  Not a policy of the oh so wise diplomatic corps.  But his policies.  It should be obvious.  He's the CINC.  Full stop.  He gets to do that.  And he gets to take whatever actions he can (within the law) to root out corruption, which he was doing.  As far as obstruction of Congress goes, remember how this started.  It was a one-sided kangaroo court held in the basement of the capital in which the Republicans couldn't call witnesses, cross examine witnesses and were generally shut out.  When it got to the light of day, Shiff was a butthead and didn't allow many of the Republican requests.  So if I were Trump I might have done the same thing.  "Fuck you guys.  When you decide to make it fair, give me a call."  So bottom line is that there is no there, there.  They are embarrassing themselves.  That was evident today when they indicated that USMCA would pass.  They are desperately trying to get this wrapped up and off the stage.  It will go to the Senate and it will fizzle.  I don't know how they'll dispense with it, but I suspect it will be fast and with little fanfare.  If this doesn't show the pathetic deep state though, I don't know what does.

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