Ultimate Impeachable Act
George Conway teamed up with Neal Katyal yesterday to opine on Trump’s latest outrage of holding up aid to Ukraine as inducement to dig dirt on Joe Biden. Katyal was solicitor general in the Obama administration. It’s become obvious now that the whistleblower case that Bill Barr is covering up is a blatant incident of Trump violating the Constitution and US law to induce a foreign power to assist him in defeating a domestic political opponent. Another weekend must-read, this one is powerful.
I can’t help but wonder if the whistleblower is Costs and/or Gordon…
1No Costs, Coats…
2This may seem a wee bit strange, but hold on. Determining who the whistle blower is is kind of like checking for mold after a bad water experience like a bit of a flood. Maybe all we have to do is take a good long sniff and we can find the whistle blower and his concern for national security. To h-e-double hockey sticks with Potus 45.
3Back in my Fatherland (in Europe) my compatriots keep asking me WHAT does it take to get Trump out of the office. In 2017, even in 2018 I thought I knew the answer. Now, I’m not so sure any more.
4Also, I’m not sure what,s the name of the game Pelosi is playing. She does not strike me as stupid politician. Or stupid woman. But??
FrauFree: what does it take to get Trump out of office?
A 3/5 Democratic Senate. Or a GOP-dominated Senate in which 3/5 of the Senators care more about the country than about the Republican Party. I’m not holding my breath.
“People seem to think that they are citizens of the Republican Party and that this is patriotism and sufficiently good patriotism. I prefer to be a citizen of the United States.” — Mark Twain
5FrauFree: Rhea is right. The process is impeachment in the democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which leads to a trial in the Senate. That trial is overseen by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, an old racist who both stopped oversight of the Southern states ongoing efforts to disenfranchise blacks, and who legalized the use of secret money to buy elections. [In the case involved, after their arguments failed, Roberts explicitly told them to come back the next day and “address the free speech aspects”, which were then used as the basis of the ruling in the Citizens United case. First time that a Supreme Court justice ever told plaintiffs how to argue their case.]
And even with a fair and impartial judge, it requires a 2/3 vote in the Senate to convict the President and throw him out. [Rhea’s 3/5 is the percent required to have a bill be considered if there is partisan opposition, and it’s based on an arcane tradition of 60% to cut off debate in the Senate and force a vote].
So, gang: If calling him Moscow Mitch (*) finally persuaded the number one enabler of Trump to actually let election security come up for debate in the Senate, what do we have to call him to get him to not block a trial in the Senate once the House of Representatives does impeach?
Sadly, the answer is probably “Dead Mitch”.
(*) of course, it might not have been the name-calling. The investigation of his and his wife’s blatant corruption may have also helped light a fire under his aged, wrinkled behind.
6Rhea, Professor, thanks for taking time for explaining – but I probably should have been more precise. I DO know the TECHNICAL part of removing the prez, my question was more on the rhetorical side: WHAT #45 has to do to actually get removed (i.e. it would be too much even for Mitch)?
7I,m pretty sure for now that shooting someone dead on 5th Avenue wouldn’t even remotely qualify. And the current “give me some dirt on Biden, I’ll give you… ” scandal will not. WHAT, then?
Yes, thanks Professor. So many people are condemning Nancy Pelosi because they don’t understand the process involved. I’d love to see him impeached too, but there’s a snowball’s chance in hell with the Senate and Moscow Mitch obstructing everything.
8Still don’t understand the problem. House investigates, finds plenty of evidence of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”, votes a bill of impeachment (or whatever it is called). Right there, a lot of folks who have been oblivious sit up and take notice. Bill goes to the Senate where one of two things happens – enough Republicans decide that giving Twitler a free pass will destroy any hope for their own re-election in 2020 so they vote to convict or, the Republican Senators continue with their free pass for Twitler and the Dems, in an uncharacteristic burst of electoral hardball, make the Republicans up for re-election own their vote.
For those concerned, as Nancy Pelosi seems to be, about the fallout, let me remind you of two things. One, the effort to impeach Nixon, while it never got to a vote, was sufficient to drive Nixon out of office AND cause the Republican Senators and Representatives to lose a lot of seats in the next election. Why? Because the House did a thorough job of demonstrating the offenses committed by Nixon to the American people. The effort to impeach Clinton on the other hand, was viewed by many people, both Democrats and Republicans, as a hit job. Even so, the Republicans paid only a small price electorally for their efforts, retaining control of both Houses of Congress.
It’s often noted that Clinton’s popularity increased following the impeachment trial. I would suggest that happened because many Americans, whether they approved of Clinton or not, were thoroughly disgusted with the Republican’s four year long effort to find something, ANYTHING, to force Clinton out of office no matter how trivial.
9Just my opinion and I’m just as full of shit as anybody else.
10You can castigate Pelosi as much as you want. But the truth she recognizes is that she only has control as long as we have the majority in the House. And while I also agree that we should be Impeaching the motherf**keep already, I think I get where she’s coming from.
As much as I hate to admit it, liberals share one crucial trait with repugnantcans. We tend to project our values on everyone.
Unfortunately that means we expect everyone to have a sense of fairness.
But it also means they expect anyone who doesn’t use doichebaggery to obtain their goals is a weak snowflake.
40 years ago, we didnt have a totally different reality running 24 hours a day. On MULTIPLE MEDIA outlets.
Until that watchdog at “Justice” ( quotes denoting mockery that name represents these days) Barr is removed, doesn’t matter what anyone does, 45 is protected….. Barr has the keys to Guantanamo and they need to be removed so he and 45 and the rest of this mob of imposters can take up residence.
11FrauFree: sorry if I sounded condescending, it was not my intent. There’s many native born U.S. citizens who don’t have the vaguest clue about just what the impeachment process is. Some don’t even know that impeachment is an indictment, and only a subsequent trial in the Senate can result in a conviction.
As for your real question, everyone here at TWMDBS is somewhere between mystified and disgusted at just how much Trump is getting away with. I’m convinced the real answer is overweening and intentional ignorance. After all, 41% of Trump supporters think we should bomb Agrabah … the imaginary city in the animated version of Aladdin.
12May the whistleblower leak everything. Put it out there for the voters to see.
13Professor, no worries, you did not sound condescending at all. Besides, I’m hardened by living in good old Soviet Union, so it takes a real effort to get under my skin 🙂 And yep, you are right, I’ve seen many native born US citizens here in The States not having any glue how exactly their government works.
That said, I have another question. Are we not moving closer and closer to the point when Congress itself starts to violate the Constitution? I mean, last time I checked, it was Congress’ job to keep the executive branch at least somewhat on the track.
14Reading today’s paper – The evidence piles up, stateside, in Ukraine . . . everywhere. Just one more item of corruption from the TIC (Toddler-In-Chief) administration –
“We have Monsanto’s back on pesticide regulation,” says the White House.
Bayer purchased Monsanto in 2018, in part for the value of the agricultural sale of Rondup weedkiller worth billions of dollars world wide. Lawsuits alleging that its use caused cancers have been filed. The company maintains that studies show it to be safe. “”Documents released as a result of the litigation, for example, included a confidential report from a consulting firm that Monsanto hired in 2018, which assured company executives that a White House adviser had said, “We have Monsanto’s back on pesticides regulation.”
“Roundup Weedkiller Is Blamed for Cancers, but Farmers Say It’s Not Going Away”
15The New York Times, Sunday Business, Sept. 22, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/bayer-roundup.html
Talking about Nancy P. with friends today, we wondered if the fact that she is 3rd in line for the Presidency, had anything to do with her being less than gungho to impeach. Is she, in fact, 3rd in line?
16I can visualize the gop salivating and hiring all measures of consultants to bring her and the rest of us down.
how do you all see this problem, or is it a problem?
The D’s were given the control of the House, in part, to keep a check on demented donnie.
17Failure to do so, by impeachment since that is all he will react to, for bogus political reasons is a betrayal of those who worked, contributed and voted for the d’s
Will voters bother to come out for the d’s when the leader of the house d’s refuses to do her duty and the institional d organizations revels in bouts of “hippie punching” i.e. rule on consultants who work for challengers and/or progressives, continued support and protection of thuglicrats like lipinski et.al.
Loyalty and support should go both ways up and down. The failure of the d leadership to “dance with them that brought ya” (Molly Ivins) is a recipe for disaster and dfeat.
Lay out the case for impeachment clean the leadership of quislings such as hoyer, if he won’t support d agenda demote him to the back bench.
Agreed that as situation is now that no thug will vote for impeachment in Senate and that possibily a compliant judiciary may rule that the demented one is above the law. But in doing so they expose their corruption and go on record for their betrayal of their oath.
If humanity is going to lose to these anti constitional democratic thugs at least go down fighting and require the thugs to wallow in the mud and slime that is this occupation of the government.
@FrauFree
18It was said that the only thing that would threaten the reelection of a long in louisana would be if they were caught in bed with a dead hooker or a live boy.
So it would seem to be the thuglicans approach to demented donnie.
And with his known track record of misogny, racism and thuggish behavior one must question whether a dead hooker would do the trick or if it would further entrench the evangelicals loyalty to him for ridding the world of another woman who “didn’t know her place”
@K, In the interest of historical correctness, the Louisiana governor you are thinking of was neither Huey Long or Earl Long, but the just as colorful Edwin Edwards. Before his third election as governor he jokingly told reporters “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy”
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