Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) affirmed on Saturday that he’s likely to vote against impeaching President Donald Trump.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1268389
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1268389
GO BEARS!!!
Please leave Joe Cunningham out of this.
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America is not for sale. Colin Peterson is voting to maintain his seat. quid pro quo. not a patriot a HACK
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My instinct is to just ignore this. Primary them next year, by all means, but let’s not waste any tears or outrage on them now. It only distracts.
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A Manchin-like decision. But this is different. Voting with the R’s on Policy is one thing.
Peterson, however, will have to squirm as more and more and more of Trump’s misdeeds roll out.
Politics is a profession in which one can be a little too cowardly.
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Dems need congresscritters with principles. I’ll be contributing to any democrat that challenges this venal and corrupt piece of dogshit…
ETA:
Tried to email this jerk, to tell him that I’ll be contributing to a primary opponent etc… and guess what. He only takes email from his district.
And that would be acceptable – except that he is Chair of the Agriculture committee, which means he has to serve the interests of not just the people in his district, but the nation as a whole.
So I called his DC office (and given that its sunday, I left a message) and will be calling his minnesota office(s) tomorrow. You can find all his offices and their phone numbers here.
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I’m having trouble seeing an upside for Peterson in this. He’ll piss off a lot of Democrats, but Republicans will never support him no matter what he does. How is this a good strategy?
It would seem to me that, if you can’t win no matter what you do, your best bet would be to go down while siding with honesty. At least then you’ll be able to live with yourself. I find it hard to believe Peterson really believes Trump is innocent, or that his actions aren’t worthy of impeachment. I’m not sure anyone in Congress truly believes that. If Peterson is doing this solely out of political cravenness, it’s going to backfire. What’s the point in being craven if you’ll probably lose anyway?
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It’s not a good strategy for him of course. But it is helpful for the media to maintain its DEMOCRATS IN DISARRAY narrative. Not that it will ever choose the more correct narrative, that the Republican Party is nothing more than a criminal cult and offers exactly zero usefulness to the nation.
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Peterson represents Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, which Trump won by over 30 points against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District (the blue dot is Minneapolis/St. Paul):
It’s just cattle and corn out there, folks. I don’t know how they hold the ballots in their hooves, but that’s who sent Peterson to DC.
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I’m not so sure. As long as he morphs into a ttump sucker, rethugs will support him. See John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy.
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The NJ representative is Jeff Van Drew (not Van Drews).
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“…unless they come up with something between now and Wednesday.”
Peterson must be waiting for Trump’s gun to go pop-pop-pop on 5th Avenue…but then again,the Supremes might just say “That’s ok too.”
Who?
As long as it’s only one or two of them doing this, who cares? A majority is a majority, and much more valuable than holding each member of it up to our high moral standards. (If it were MY rep in NYC I’d be livid, of course…)
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Peterson represents rural district, that voted Trump in the last election. Democrats need majority in congress after 2020, it is better to keep Peterson in place than losing seat to Republican.
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I’m reminded for some reason the movie 1776 (I know it was a musical first, but I’ve only ever seen the movie, one of my favs). The scene is where Jefferson has submitted the Declaration of Independence, the members of the Constitutional Congress are ripping it to shreds, and Adams is yelling at Jefferson (to paraphrase) “Why aren’t you in there defending your work?” Jefferson says something like “I thought the words I used would speak for themselves.”
This is what’s going on. Trump admitted what was going on. Mick the Prick admitted what was going on. Both of them in public and in front of cameras.
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Switching parties occasionally works for a politician, but fails far more often. Most party regulars value loyalty, and someone who switches parties for the sake of political expediency is disloyal by definition. Such people are rarely able to gain enough trust from the other side to maintain a political career.
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Take a look at his district. It is a conservative, rural district that has lots of Trump supporters, that voted for Peterson because he is a big agriculture supporter and they trust him. If Peterson goes down, it will be Republican gain.
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Except that impeachment is there to protect the 2020 election. If we can’t call out and punish such obvious attempts at corrupting the election, then the Dems may find that they can never win an election again.
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