Dems Aim To Avoid Messy Battle To Replace Cummings To Keep Impeachment Momentum

In order to maintain House Democrats’ impeachment momentum and avoid exposing any rifts in the party at a crucial time, Democrats are aiming to quietly replace late-House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) with the most senior Democrat on the committee.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1257181

Good idea…the Dems are focused (hopefully won’t mess the impeachment inquiry process) + Maloney is pretty sharp too. Also thanks to the Congressional Black Caucus for being pragmatic!

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Yes, this is good news. All energy focussed on moving ahead – the last thing we need is energy wasted on in-fighting. Plus we are not talking about a lifetime appointment here…

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Elijah was a national treasure. What a loss.

Now we wait to see how Toadglans will make his death all about him.

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So Barr is planning to take out Maloney, next.

Sure, Cummings could have died of natural causes, he did have a number of health concerns, but the timing was just too perfect for trump.

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What, democrats not in disarray? A united caucus? who would have thought?

It’s rather similar to the way that gwb turned out to be a uniter.

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I miss Cummings but take heart in seeing how Schiff has risen to his role in the impeachment

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I hear Putin wants Tulsi Gabbard to take over the committee. This is going to stretch Rudy a bit thinner.

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Maloney is one of the more corrupt Democrats on that particular committee – she’s practically an owned and operated subsidiary of the banking and finance industries, and has taken over $6 million from the finance industry (the second highest total among Dems – only Steny Hoyer takes more money from them).

Its unsurprising, then, that Pelosi would install someone as compromised by cash as Maloney as head of a committee that needs to have uncorruptable leadership.

But it really sucks, because if Warren is elected president, Maloney will be there fighting her tooth and nail to prevent needed reforms for the financial services industry.

How, then, did she tolerate Cummings?

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I think the loss of Cummings and the fact Trump used the word “Lynching” are related and trump felt a little more free to press the racist buttons.

I think that the respective committees pursuing impeachment were better with some diversity that represents the party.

I’m all for avoiding messy battles, and there is clear logic to using a simple “Next in line” rule to keep inter party squabbles to a minimum.

That said, the diversity Cummings represented should be maintained. It puts Trumps racist comments in a worse light when he attacks directly folks investigating him with such language.

And Trump can’t help himself

So I like picking someone like Maxine Waters, who clearly has the requisite clout to be a powerful committee chair, which should keep complaints to a minimum and will also enrage and provoke Trump.

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Cummings got the chairmanship because of longevity – had Pelosi tried to take it from him, the CBC would have gone crazy.

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If she wants to leave Financial Services, and if there’s a good replacement for her there.

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Or, y’know, maybe they just went with seniority and committee experience in spite of the Wall Street support, because it’s important not to cock up the impeachment process.

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Waters is “involved” already as head of the Financial Services committee, which is party to the Mazars and DeutscheBank subpoena cases currently wending their way through the courts.

But there is no “diversity” in the impeachment investigation. Pelosi has her acolyte/lieutenant Adam Schiff doing whatever she tells him to do – and Pelosi’s #1 priority remains protecting the Dog Whistle Democrats by disposing of "impeachment’ as quickly as she can.

this is irrelevant to impeachment. Pelosi is running impeachment through Schiff, and the rest of the committee chairs have been effectively sidelined. This is about Pelosi exploiting “impeachment” to install another corporate Dem in a position of power.

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The thought crossed my mind. Then Pelosi’s brother died. Hmmm. It’s sad I even think such thoughts.

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Oversight’s jurisdiction has nothing to do with Financial Services, unless you just want to complain that Maloney might, if reappointed as Chair, be able to inquire into how President Warren’s administration went about exercising its rulemaking authority to cut Jamie Dimon’s balls off.

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I seriously doubt that Warren would have any problem with Maloney. Maloney is a pretty accomplished legislator on many issues that liberals care very much about. You really should read her Wikipedia page. She is up there in the leadership and with some good solid legislation behind her.

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While I am quite certain that you could (and will) be more wrong, I cannot imagine how you’d go about it.

BTW—Cummings rose to the position of ranking member on the oversight committee in 2010 as a result of a vote by the Democratic caucus, in which he defeated Carolyn Maloney.

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