actually, the snippet included the part you quoted.
And it got worse (IMHO) from there. Because Schiff is saying that “Obstruction of Congress” will overcome his concerns about the lack of Senate support for impeachment. to wit:
I think that we are seeing more members that recognize that the administration is acting in a lawless fashion, essentially having obstructed justice, is now obstructing Congress and our lawful function. And if we conclude that there’s no other way to do our jobs, no other way to do the oversight, no other way to show the American people what this president has done, his- his unethical and illegal acts as outlined in the Mueller Report, then we may get there.
This argument is going to be a disaster – as long as Trump does not directly defy a court order impeaching Trump based on “obstructing Congress” is going to work in Trump’s favor. Trump is legally entitled to challenge congressional subpoenas all the way up to the Supreme Court, and the American people know that.
You along with a few others and we know who they are continue to believe the party esp. House is leadership is feckless, frightened and won’t act. I disagree.
All that is needed is a resolution of some type, authorizing the use of impeachment powers . It can be a resolution of the whole house, as was done in the Andrew Johnson case. Or it can be as simple as the Judiciary Committee authorizing the chairman to issue subpoena’s pursuant to an impeachment investigation — as was done on Oct 30, 1973 in the Watergate case. (theoretically, any committee can launch an impeachment inquiry.)
Odd you mention Johnson because I’ve reading excerpts of The Impeachers and I see parallels between today and that era. It’s what makes me hopeful justice will prevail.
actually, what scares me most is that they will act…
too late — by the time they get around to making it official, there will be no way to make this about Trump’s cover up of the Russia attack. That story will be lost. We’re already losing it – the House hasn’t filed a single court case disputing any of Trump’s executive privilege claims on materials related to the Russia attack. Even the “process” news were getting now is just about Trump’s finances – his accounting firm, his banks, and his taxes.
what scares me is that the will act – for the wrong reason
I don’t think that the American people will care at all about Trump’s “obstruction of congress”. Most will see it as political squabbling – and will see an impeachment of Trump on that basis as over-reach as long as Trump does not directly defy a court order.
what scares me is that the Dems will have disastrous messaging
Thank you for the link to the transcript. I just did a text search. “Russ” does not appear. That means Schiff never said “Russia” or “Russians”, let alone “Russian attack” or “Russian coverup”. Impeachment needs to be anchored in something substantial and visceral… how can the Dem leadership not understand that?
Remember, Roberts did the “unthinkable”, and publicly criticized Trump for talking about “Obama judges” and “Clinton judges”.
Another thing – I don’t see Roberts ceding the Court’s power to Trump. Trump’s authoritarianism isn’t just a threat to Congress, its a threat to the courts as well. Roberts knows full well that if the Courts help Trump neuter Congress, it will be the courts themselves who will be the next victim.
I haven’t been worried about The Supremes since “Love Child”, which I still say sucks.
But seriously: we may disagree on many things, but you are absolutely right. If Trump is allowed to run roughshod over the power of Congress, nothing is going to stop him from going after the authority of the courts and Roberts himself. If Roberts is too stupid or too much of a loyal Republican to realize that, perhaps he had better hang up that robe and skip off to Patagonia.
And then turned around and let the muslim ban through, allowing the ridiculous argument that all of Trump’s statements about it being a muslim ban weren’t important, so long as counsel could claim with a straight face that it was something else.
