The plan to impeach President Trump over his encouragement of a mob that ransacked the Capitol is colliding with the reality that doing so could delay, by at least a few days or weeks, confirmation of key Joe Biden nominees after the inauguration.
One of the Dem senators (can’t recall who it was, sorry) said “we know how to walk and chew gum at the same time”, there’s no reason time couldn’t be apportioned to each.
“…the reality that doing so could delay, by at least a few days or weeks, confirmation of key Joe Biden nominees after the inauguration.”
So what.
Trump’s administration is larded with “acting” cabinet secretaries, even as we speak.
Why can’t Biden appoint as many nominees as he wants, into acting roles, pending confirmation?
Securing the US Constitution against violent insurrection seems kind of pressing at the moment.
“Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), while he is still the minority leader, might use an obscure post 9/11 authority to pressure McConnell to reconvene the Senate earlier for impeachment. That option allows McConnell and Schumer to call the Senate back into session during times of national emergency.”
Anoither insurrectionist attack on the Capitol, or publicized plans to do so, might do the trick. Schumer should consider coordinating with the FBI on threats.
This is ridiculous hand-wringing. Is everyone forgetting that Dems control all three branches of government after the 20th? There is no reason the Senate can’t run a bifurcated session dealing with both an impeachment trial and regular business on the same day, so Biden’s appointment confirmations can proceed. They’ve just been on a long recess, get back to work!
Related…
Best Part…
Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 in GOP leadership who has been sharply critical of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, did not tell her members how to vote Monday, but she called the impeachment vote a “vote of conscience.” Cheney has not said how she will vote.
Somehow Liz F’n Cheney said the word “conscience”
Strange days indeed
Local government bodies typically have “consent” agenda. I propose that Democrats confirm all nominees for whom no hearings were allowed before Jan 20 as a single vote for the entire group, on Mon. Jan 25, following five days of hearings.
So far, there is no indication of broader support of such an approach, which would undoubtedly attract mockery from Republicans.
Mockery from the traitorous republicans? Oh, no. What shall we do? How shall we survive hearing such mockery?
I don’t give a flying fuck what those cretins say, and neither will most of the rest of us.
I believe that once the article’s of impeachment have been received on the Senate, they have to conduct the trial before doing anything else. I don’t think the Senate can work on any other business until the Senate has resolved the impeachment.
Yeah, I don’t see why they can’t vote on multiple nominees at the same time. We are in the midst of multiple crises’ (pandemic + recession + Trump insurrection), so it seems prudent to skip some of the normal Senate slowdowns to get the Biden administration fully staffed.
And
House votes articles of impeachment immediately but delays sending them to the Senate for trial.
Pass all appointments, judgeships (barring blue cards as needed), and any Biden initiatives amenable to legislative reconciliation in the first 50 days.
Send articles of impeachment to Senate.
Prioritize the House bill backlog (fuck McConnell), merging as needed, and mend filibuster rules to force actual holding of floor w/ a descending criterion for ending filibuster (2/3 majority drops to simple majority incrementally over 60 days) and pass the rest of the Biden main initiatives by end of first year.
Yeah I’m an amateur so JMO
That is true, unless the Senate passes a resolution to amend the rules.
.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-99sdoc33/html/CDOC-99sdoc33.htm
How Rethugs define it:
Mostly, yes.
Same timeframe… but two stages.
1st vote: as you described above, but also people preciously Senate confirmed for a position. Yellen, Blinken, Garland for a few examples.
2nd vote: the rest as you described, not included in group 1
Good God! Why do Dems. need to make this difficult? Just have Biden put up his 10 or 20 top priorities-they are all known, experienced nominees- then have a 5 hour hearing with them all present at the same time (just like doing voir dire of a jury) and then vote up or down on each of them. Done in 6 hours. How hard is that?
Not quite:
Conscience: thing you pretend you have when politically expedient
It boils down to: do something or do nothing. The riot at the capitol was a very serious event. We can let spin, political concerns and crisis management take over or we can handle it as we did in the mythical days when America was great. Do something about it. That riot was the culmination of a months long effort to lie and so so without concern of where the lies may take folks. NO ONE believed Trump won. Not Rudy, Not Trump and not the assholes in DC on the 6th. They knew he lost but thought a coordinated lie campaign would give them what they wanted. The result was not a second Trump term but 6 people dead. That can’t be allowed to be. It doesn’t matter who’s offended or upset. If nothing is done who are we?
Fuck their feelings. Do unto others as they would do unto you and we know damn well how that mob would do unto others. Just fucking do it. Impeach, jail or “cancel” but fucking do it.
BLUE CARDS! We don’t need no fucking Blue Cards!
ETA. Lets play by the same rules as Moscow Mitch
I’d consider it ok if that got done on six days, prioritizing the big hitters like AG, SecDef,SoS, Treasury day 1… DNI and NatSec next.
Then FEC while republicans are in their shame corner.
Rule XIII states that “The adjournment of the Senate sitting in said trial shall not operate as an adjournment of the Senate; but on such adjournment the Senate shall resume the consideration of its legislative and executive business.”
I don’t know what is required to adjourn the Senate or what effect an adjournment would have on the ongoing trial, but the rule clearly contemplates allowing the Senate to consider its legislative and executive business during an impeachment trial. Maybe @khyber900 can shed some light on this.