No President has ever been impeached and removed from office in the history of the United States. To be removed from office requires a 2/3s vote of the Senate, a hurdle wisely set high by the Founding Fathers hopefully ensuring it would be used with discretion.
“They’re coming for me, aren’t they?”
We are in day #1278 of Impeachment Trial #2 of Donald Trump as presented by Nancy Pelosi and Netflix with special guest appearances by Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and their home boys, the US Senate.
Our US Senate Chamber where the action is today.
Yesterday, we were treated to a splendid four hour round of questions in which Senators asked questions of both the House Managers (prosecutors) and the lawyers for former President Donald J Trump (defendant).
Today, the 44th day of December 2020, the House of Representatives, led by the 80-year-0ld, newly re-elected, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, is conducting a drive by impeachment of the POTUS Donald J Trump.
“We couldn’t get COVID relief done in 8 months (wink, wink), but we can get impeachment done in a week, right?”
We are seven days from the inauguration of Joe Biden as POTUS whereafter the healing and the uniting will begin in earnest.
It is Friday, a bit before 4:00 PM CST. Senator Murkowski of Alaska has announced she is opposed to seeking more witnesses in the Impeachment Trial of President Donald J Trump.
In this Senator Murkowski joins Senator Lamar Alexander, thereby leaving Cocaine Mitch and the Republicans with a worst case scenario of 51-49 which embraces the notion that Senator Mitt Romney and Senator Susan Collins (both nominally Republicans, though the disguise is no longer believable, just switch parties and get over it) will vote to seek additional witnesses.
That 51-49 total does not make any allowance for the votes of Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Doug Jones, or Senator Krysten Sinema — all Democrats thought to be considering jumping ship from their party and voting to disavow witnesses. [I predict they do not jump ship.]
While the vote is about “witnesses,” it is really a proxy for the dismissal of all charges against President Donald J Trump, thereby leaving him in office until the end of this term and on the ballot to be re-elected in November 2020.
Thus ends the impeachment and trial of President Trump. Much ado about nothing.
We are on the verge of the first day of the impeachment trial of President Donald J Trump and, thus, I feel the necessity to say something of portent on the subject. I will try to be evenhanded, fair, and like Nancy Pelosi, wield a big hammer.
Fancy Nancy contemplating using her gavel on President Trump’s . . . . ?
This may be harder than I thought.
The Harlem Globetrotters play the Washington Generals in displays of athleticism, sport, and comedy, but the Harlem Globetrotters always, always, always win. When you go to a Globetrotters game, you know the outcome before the tip.
This is how I feel about The Impeachment. I know the outcome. The Washington Generals will not win. Again. Yawn.
This is the first time I have used the word “paroxysm” in a longish time. I may never have used it in this blog before. It means a “sudden, violent outburst; a fit of violent action or emotion.”
It is a word apropos for the impending impeachment of President Donald J Trump tomorrow by the US House of Representatives. [I predict Speaker Pelosi wears pink & pearls. Anybody want to make a small wager?]
“Don’t screw with me, Big Red Car, you rust bucket. I can do things to you you cannot even begin to imagine.”
In case you have been traveling or tunneling toward the center of the earth, the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee, after painstaking scrutiny of the misdeeds of our President spread over a couple of days in which we met some actual law school professors, has proposed two Articles of Impeachment which the entire House of Representatives will ponder tomorrow and approve.
[I can tell you they will approve them, because that is part of my super powers — I can see the future.]
Only Democrats will vote to impeach the President. Some handful of Dems will vote against it, but it will be hopelessly partisan.
Today, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi directed the House Judiciary Committee (Jerry Nadler, Chairman) to draft Articles of Impeachment saying, “The President has given us no choice.”
This decision came after a meeting of the Democrat caucus and a day of riveting testimony from a panel of four law professors. [For those of you whose sarcasm meters are in the shop for holiday repairs after Thanksgiving — this is sarcasm.]
This calls to mind two things of some portent:
If you come to kill the king, make sure to kill the king.
The importance and danger of a decisive engagement.
Today, I am in the prop wash of the Congress going on its 10-day Thanksgiving vacay. It must be nice.
[The House didn’t have a chance to run that USMCA — United States Mexico Canada Agreement — the NAFTA replacement through for a vote, but they had plenty of time to deal with Ukraine and investigating President Trump. Maybe they can get back to the real business when they return from Thanksgiving. Oh, no. Then we have Christmas. Ooops.]
It has given me time to study the impeachment phenomenon.
I come away with a longish yawn and here’s why.
The Congress — specifically Adam Schiff’s Band of Boobs (includes you, Republicans) spent the last week asking people who got fired from their post as Ambassador to Ukraine, “How did that make you feel?”
Stop — is there anybody on the planet who doesn’t think former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch doesn’t feel . . . . . BAD? Sheesh.
Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong.