The ad has ordinary-looking people pissed off and saying things like:
Now you tell us to wait for the next election? Really? Really? Really? This is why we volunteered. Raised money. Went door to door. And voted in the last election. Our founding fathers expected you — Congress — to hold a lawless president accountable. And you’re doing nothing. Nothing. Nothing. He broke his oath of office. He’s defying you. Laughing at you. And he’s getting away with it.Sargent comments:
Of course, Democrats aren’t doing “nothing.” But there is the risk that if their oversight is neutered and they don’t act, this picture of fecklessness will be the reigning one.Plainly believe? It's not clear what they believe, even if they plainly say an impeachment inquiry is warranted. I think they most likely believe in winning elections. I judge what people really believe based on what they actually do.
Is there a better way to handle this? Perhaps not. Because, at bottom, the core question is whether it is acceptable for Democrats to refrain from an impeachment inquiry in the face of corruption and misconduct they plainly believe merits one....
I assume the Democrats believe in using the idea of impeachment without actually conducting impeachment proceedings and one reason they stop where they do is that they don't really believe what they are saying, that what Trump did warrants impeachment.
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214 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 214 of 214Ha yes indeed they really should Martin, great post.
And FIDO, Punky Brewster rocked!
Chuck said...
I would personally love to see Trump impeached, tried in the Senate, convicted and removed from office
For what reason? You've got statutes or case law to be able to prove your point. Since you claim to be a lawyer, it shouldn't be hard to find an answer. So, do it, or shut up.
The problem that the Dems have is that the radical part of their base is demanding impeachment. Their deep pockets, led by billionaires Soros and Steyer bought a lot of election officials, starting at the Sec of State, and working down. Then they spent huge amounts of money buying and cheating their way to a House majority, a good part in order to impeach Trump. But after most of two years of a special counsel investigation, and a year with the FBI investigating before, the only thing that they have is OrangeManBad, which the sane part of the American public is not going to see as a high crime or misdemeanor. The AOL crazies part of their caucus and their base is demanding impeachment. But Speaker Palsi and her leadership know that will relegate them starting in 2021 to a minority again. They desperately need to find their high crime and misdemeanor that the American public will accept, thence the hundreds of subpoenas requesting millions of pages of documents. Except that they have to hold hearings, interview witnesses, and demand documents under their oversight, and not impeachment power. Except that their oversight power is limited to pending legislation, and maybe some of the operation of the laws that they have passed. That is obviously not what they are doing, based on the breath and depth of what they are requesting, and that it is almost entirely directed at finding dirt that can be used against Trump. Which is grounds for Trump to deny their demands.
If the only thing going on was the Dem House trying to use their oversight power into finding enough dirt on Trump to leverage into an impeachment investigation, this would be fine. But the Mueller investigation screwed up their timing. It was supposed to generate the dirt that they could use to open up impeachment hearings. Part of the problem was that Trump was clean, and part was that Trmp’s attorneys did a better job reading the law, and then got Barr installed as AG, who, among other things, told them that they had no legal right to the millions of pages of documents and half a thousand interviews that Mueller had, plus all the stuff that they had from Crossfire Hurricane, and probably even back to the Title VII FISA abuse. And because they had no right to it, and wanted it for political reasons, his duty was to prevent them from getting it.
The way that the Mueller investigation screwed up their timing is that it froze the Spygate investigations. They are now unfrozen, and cranking up far faster than the House is able to, despite their hundreds of subpoenas. IG Horowitz and USA Huber have their investigations now unfrozen, and USA Dunham was revealed to have been working on it since last year. The Spygate (etc) investigations are going to start paying off for the Republicans very likely as early as next month, and many expect actual indictments of top officials. I think that the bulk of those in serious legal jeopardy were Obama Political appointees, starting with Comey, McCabe, Yates, Brennan, and probably including Clapper. The big question is going to be whether and how far is it going to go into the Obama White House. And I expect some of the more egregious bureaucrats, like Peter Strzok to do prison time, but many of the rest are probably going to be let off with a minimum sentence by cooperating with the investigations to nail the political appointees.
That is how I expect 2019 to go, with the Trump Administration getting convictions and prison time for a number of Senate confirmed Obama nominated high govt officials, and the Dems in the House frustrated that they can’t get their promised impeachment underway. And Trump, no doubt, pointing out that the Dems are trying to hide the Obama corruption with out of control House investigations. Adding insult to injury, I have little doubt that he will point out that CNN and MSNBC, who are screaming the loadest for his impeachment, hired two of the major perps (Brennan and Clapper).
I think that the plan all along was to transfer all of the information that the Mueller investigation to the House committees. My guess is that that was part of the main strategy that included getting a Dem majority in the House (which required buying a lot of election officials, and spending billions of dollars on campaigns). The Mueller investigation did several things for the Dems: It froze the Spygate investigations; It made Trump look bad; And it accumulated information and evidence that presumably could have been used for impeachment. But it was shut down too early.
I think that the plan for transferring that mountain of evidence, the million pages of documents, half a thousand interviews, etc, was by subpoena by the House committees. Mueller’s highly partisan prosecutors would push him to cooperate, and he would push Rosenstein, who would acquiesce. No one to say no, with AG Sessions involved. But someone brought Bill Barr into the game. Initially ir was to counter the play by Weissman et al to blow a hole open in one Obstruction statute that would have made a number of legitimate Executive actions criminal, as well as preventing the shutdown of the Mueller investigation until Trump was out of office. After that, Barr was confirmed as AG, and shut down the Mueller investigation in short order by having Mueller admit that their collusion investigation was long closed, and foreclosing their aggressive Collusion statute interpretation by getting OLC and Rosenstein to accept his much more traditional interpretation. Nothing to investigate meant no reason to keep going. And, key here, with the Mueller investigation shut down, the Dems couldn’t pressure Rosenstein to comply with their House subpoenas for the Mueller evidence, but now had to go through AG Barr, who knows the political game being played, and wasn’t going to comply.
My guess though is that once the Republicans figured out the game, it was over, in terms of the transfer of the Mueller evidence to the House committees. The problem was that AG Sessions was kept on until the election for political reasons. He had to go, because he couldn’t control the Mueller investigation, because of his recusal. So, he was dumped right after the election, while the Republicans still had the House, and an interim AG brought in who appears to have been strong enough to stand up to Mueller and the Dems, to have delayed long enough to get Barr confirmed. The key was that, with the recused Sessions out of the way, a Rosenstein now had oversight over him in terms of the Mueller investigation. He could no longer get pushed around, like he had been. Could no longer make the decision to submit to the Dem House subpoenas. And that oversight came before the Dems got control of the House (and, hence, I think, why Sessions left so quickly after the election).
The question that I have is why did Bill Barr write that memo almost a year ago countering the highly aggressive Weissman Obstruction statute interpretation? Looking back, we can see why he was brought into the game. But whose hands were making that move?
"Actor portrayals. Do not try this at home."
Fran Waxman
Welcome Back Inga. How was the weather in Moscow?
AG Barr may represent a section of the GOPe coming over to Trump's side. Trump has shown that he was right when he said that better trade deals, cheap energy and less regulation would help American workers and God willing and the crick don't rise, he will be reelected. Some of the GOPe may been affected by observing this reality. So then they put in one of their own, not to betray Trump this time, but to have a say in how the anti-Trump crimes are cleaned up. They will work on cleaning up what rogue intelligence is and does; and on legislation. The crazies have their impeachment rattle and their vanity election runs to play with.
Wildswan: AG Barr may represent a section of the GOPe coming over to Trump's side....Some of the GOPe may been affected by observing this reality. So then they put in one of their own, not to betray Trump this time, but to have a say in how the anti-Trump crimes are cleaned up. They will work on cleaning up what rogue intelligence is and does; and on legislation.
You may be on to something. But Barr may be in it to shut it down and mop it up. I've wondered whether Barr is the Establishment's man inside. Any stringency of investigation can just be more impressive when at the end people are exonerated or get mild sentences. I really want him to nail everybody to the wall, but this could, perhaps, be the price of peace.
Nichevo said... " Barr may be in it to shut it down and mop it up. I've wondered whether Barr is the Establishment's man inside. Any stringency of investigation can just be more impressive when at the end people are exonerated or get mild sentences. I really want him to nail everybody to the wall, but this could, perhaps, be the price of peace."
That's the direction of my thoughts. Possibly the GOPe realizes that it must support Trump against a globalization that hurts the American workers and possibly it realizes that the intelligence agencies went rogue at the top. And if action must be taken on these real issues, then the GOPe wants to be in on the action. They want their guys to get the light sentences for co-operation and to have their names on real legislation; and they want the other party to be Eddie Coyle, to be too busy with impeachment, communism and the Khmer Green plan to see what's coming - like drunken teenagers sitting and laughing on a railroad crossing as the express barrels down toward them.
In short, it's possible the GOPe now wants to work with Trump. We have to restitch the factions together into a party someday but caution is in order.
Chuck: "Just like I would hate to see Trump get assassinated; if it made Trump into some kind of martyr and prolonged his cult status.:
Wow. You are so fallen. It's hard to be angry with you.
God put me in time out, could someone else pray for Chuck? Seems like the right thing to do.
Pretty much everything mentioned in this ad is a lie.
I assume the GOP is paying for these ads to run.
"The NRA is the violent offshoot of the GOP."
I'm going to guess that the author of that bit of wisdom is a lockstep supporter of the State, the bloodiest and best-armed gunslinger in history, and wishes to give it more power.
I love this Trump character. The only person I'd take over Trump would be Mollie Hemingway. She'd be utterly ruthless with these traitorous f*cks and I want to see some hangings
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