January 31, 2020

"Murkowski says she’ll vote no on witnesses, likely dealing fatal blow."

That sentence is a headline at the NYT.

Interesting to learn how Murkowski will vote, but it's a pro-Trump vote, so it's not "fatal" as far as the target of this proceeding is concerned.

If we're using this metaphor of death, we need to know whose death is under discussion. It's a fatal blow to the enterprise of killing the Trump presidency. At least. Maybe it's a fatal blow to the Democratic Party... or — to be less dramatic — to the 2020 ambitions of the Democratic Party.

Indeed, what a disaster!

224 comments:

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Chuck said...

Blogger Mark said...
What I am saying is that if a Senate majority had chosen to do so, they could have operated under Senate Rule XI and could have developed much more evidence and they could have . . .

Or, if they chose to do so, they could have decided they don't need to do all that and that the House charges are inadequate and the proffer of evidence inadequate and simply dismiss/acquit. And if that is there decision, it is nonjusticiable and none of the judiciary's business -- including the chief justice sitting as presiding officer. And because it is entirely within the Senate plenary authority, all those people bitching now should STFU.


Well I think you’ve got it right, actually. See you at the polls in November. After a year of the Bolton book and more Trump Administration resignations and more leaks and more scandals and more Americans wondering why there weren’t any witnesses.

Beasts of England said...

’Fuck off, you nasty, stupid waste of time.’

It seems like only yesterday when Chuckles was mortified by personal attacks on other commenters.

Browndog said...

The last I heard she was driving a black SUV near Mar-a-Lago and had a misunderstanding with the Secret Service.

She is claiming they abused their power.


Hilarious.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Somehow we are not allowed to ask liar Schitt any questions.

He is above the law.

Beasts of England said...

’See you at the polls in November.’

Wow. I’m sorry I have plans for the evening - I’d like to savor the remainder of Chuck’s meltdown in real-time... Give it 110%, sugar tits!! Don’t hold back!

Browndog said...

there weren’t any witnesses.

Prosecution calls 17 witnesses. Their testimony is presented to the jury.

The only logical reason why anyone would assert there weren't any witnesses is if, as Drago points out, history started anew this morning.

Francisco D said...

Nothing like what you suggest happened in Detroit and I did not work the 2016-18 elections. I was done with volunteering for the Republican Party after Trump’s nomination.

Lil' Chuckles forgets his lies. That is probably why he is such a fanboy of Adam Schiff.

There were many threads here about the 2012 election in which Chuckles found nothing wrong with Detroit precincts giving Obama 115% of the vote and not a single vote for Romney. That is when I started calling him Sgt. Schultz.

Mark said...

Justice Willis Van Devanter made perhaps the most famous statement of these powers in McGrain v. Daugherty, a 1927 Supreme Court decision about Mally S. Daugherty, the brother of former Attorney General Harry Daugherty. A select Senate committee issued a subpoena for Daugherty to testify and to also surrender records from an Ohio bank. When Daugherty refused to comply after a second subpoena, the Senate passed a resolution issuing a warrant and authorizing a Senate deputy to take Daugherty into custody. Daugherty filed a habeas petition against his detention. A lower court ruled that the Senate exceeded its powers by detaining Daugherty, freeing him. However, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction, holding that under the Constitution, Congress has the power to compel witnesses and testimony “to obtain information in aid of the legislative function.”

“Each house of Congress has power, through its own process, to compel a private individual to appear before it or one of its committees and give testimony needed to enable it efficiently to exercise a legislative function belonging to it under the Constitution,” Van Devanter said. “This has support in long practice of the houses separately, and in repeated Acts of Congress, all amounting to a practical construction of the Constitution.”

-- The House’s contempt powers explained

See also CRS report on Congress' inherent power to enforce subpoenas itself.

Francisco D said...

For those younger ones here, Sgt. Schultz was a Stalag camp guard on Hogans Heroes.

He colluded with the prisoners and claimed he saw nothing when they were running one of their various operations against the numbskull Germans.

He had a great accent when he shook his jowls and claimed fearfully, "I saw nothing, noooothing."

Yancey Ward said...

"I was done with volunteering for the Republican Party after Trump’s nomination."

I can hear the Democrats now, Chuck- "Damned, Chuck quit working the polling stations- how the hell can we cheat his much smarter replacement?????"

Mr. Majestyk said...

Mark,
From the portion you quoted,the Daugherty case involved a private individual, not a presidential adviser. Have the courts ruled that Congress can just ignore claims of Executive Privilege and toss the president's advisors in the House or Senate jail until he or she complies with a congressional subpoena? It seems like that would pretty much gut Executive Privilege.

TJM said...

Since the Clintoon years, the Dems have been a crime organization masquerading as a political party. One has to be morally and intellectually bankrupt to support them

Amadeus 48 said...

Impeachment 2020–Sorry for your loss, suckers

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Josephbleau said...

"...He had a great accent when he shook his jowls and claimed fearfully, "I saw nothing, noooothing."

I had a funny experience sitting in an airport bar in Frankfurt, watching Hogan's Heroes reruns on TV with German dubing and english subtitles. The house loved it.

Josephbleau said...

"General Berkalter, there has never been an escape from Stalag 13!" "So you have told me, and told me, and told me again."

"Raus Raus!" I replied, in my best Hogan's heros German.

Josephbleau said...

"What cell is he in?" Nein Nein. Don't tell me no or I'll kill you. NO! he is in cell number 9!!

Tacitus said...

Hey, there's nothing preventing the House from impeaching Trump again next week for something else. This is a political show not a legal one. It can be rerun until the voters have had enough of it.

T

Rusty said...

roesch/voltaire said...
"Sad but a cover up by any other name is still a cover up. And so history will note."
What coverup. Explain the coverup. I only ask because the democrats have been in control of this whole thing until it got to the senate. if you wanted witnesses why didn't you call them before you got to the senate? That was the job of the house.

Josephbleau said...

Der Putsch ist verklempt. Pelosi ist nicht Fuhrer.

Equipment Maintenance said...

Any senator that votes for conviction is voting for civil war.

LA_Bob said...

Chuck said, "...and more Americans wondering why there weren’t any witnesses."

Only followers of Slate, Salon, CNN, and MSNBC (and maybe some other "woke" media) will give a damn in a week or two.

Chris N said...

I don’t know if others have said it, but that magnificent bastard Trump’s giving me the same sense of relief as election night 2016. Yeah he’s a bit of PR Barnum, Ted Dibiase, and he’s about as handsome, trustworthy and original as a statue outside the Atlantic City Taj Mahal...

But if it’s Obamacare, Solyndra, High priestess Christine Blasey Ford, Democratic Socialists, old school Marxists and new school identity politikers, Union bosses, an educational and military complex, technocrats, the Clintons, campus critters, opinioneers, high liberal idealists hoping the radicals will eat them last....

Well they and we all deserve Trump now don’t we? Let that shame sink in as you take responsibility for all of this....explaining it to your kids without being a child yourself and blaming ‘They.’

It’s ‘we.’ We’re Americans and this is what we’ve inherited and this is what we’re passing on as a Republic and Nation Of laws.

Trump’s character certainly is a deep problem and invites more instability and lurching towards Europe (pure class, lots of little wars getting big, restrictive trade etc) but we might not be headed anywhere we weren’t already.

Goodness.

Chris N said...

And what a clown show and witch hunt this all has been.

They crucified squishy Mormon Massachusetts Mitt, morally shade anybody with any care for tradition and many would’ve run Washington, Adams and Jefferson into the ground.

Ah, well. One of the models I use still says a much worse and deeper storm may happen, due to design issues stretching across centuries and deep within us. Here’s to hoping that ain’t so.

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