What I hate is the missed opportunities and then you look at things years later and say “gee we should have acted.”
Iran-Contra congressman Henry Gonzalez D-Texas was drawing up articles of impeachment and Senator Warren Rudman R-NH issued a stinging rebuke of the administration during the hearings yet the media downplayed it. Ollie North was made to be some sort of hero when he should have been court marshaled.
Timmy Russert was “Ronnie is old, he didn’t really know, let him serve out his term” “Leave H.W Bush be”.
Then at the end of Bush’s term William Barr issued pardons for the perpetrators.
Failing to institute an impeachment inquiry and hold hearings would be another missed opportunity that would be regretted for years.
6 Likes
Not pursuing impeachment is exactly what we complain about Republicans doing… putting politics over country.
If we lose 2020 because we stood up for what is right, at least when history is written it will note we said it wasn’t ok.
If we don’t, we will ultimately look weak and lose anyway. And history will put Pelosi’s name next to Chamberlain because they both basically attempted to appease Nazi’s
5 Likes
While we clearly all wish that Mueller would have been more direct, open and aggressive yesterday, even if he had been, Dems, along with state and local prosecutors, would still realistically be the only entities in a position to deal with Trump effectively, both legally and politically. He just failed to give them as much ammo as they wanted, but it would still have been up to them to close the deal. Perhaps that’s why he was so circumspect yesterday. Perhaps not. In the end it doesn’t really matter.
1 Like
I agree with you, but the Dems are too scared of the ‘socialist’ label to run on that. They want/need Republican voters, especially in reddish districts/states and it just isn’t going to happen in many places.
As a result, there is a plateau of what Dems can actually accomplish.
I don’t think it would be worth much calling him back, he would drag his feet the entire way and make it take a long time, just like he did this time and then fight having to say anything new.
2 Likes
I was against Mouton’s effort to oust Pelosi after we gained the Majority.
Moulton wanted it for the wrong reasons.
But I concede I was wrong.
2 Likes
It seems like some people think that there is going to be a decisive moment, or that one could be made to happen, when Donnie two scoops is easily taken down.
It is the expectation that this Knight could even exist, and some are still expecting that. But against those expectations, everything has failed, starting among Republican hopefuls running against Donnie in the primaries, as Donnie likes to point out.
I think people need to start looking at the assumptions behind this expectation, and why it does not hold. Because clearly those assumptions are entirely wrong.
3 Likes
I think if we clear the hurdles that kept him from speaking on certain issues, he may be willing to say a little more.
He asked for those hurdles. He was a very reluctant witness and not a very compelling one.
3 Likes
Dems = weak sauce. That’s how we lose the next election.
Impeach this corrupt POTUS now, before it’s too late.
2 Likes
It’s really hard to reconcile the Mueller we saw yesterday with the man we were led to believe led this probe, the decorated Marine hero who ran into the fire and thought nothing of his own safety. Perhaps he really was that man–once. Perhaps it’s all a myth that was created years ago to make it easier for him to do his real job, which was to protect the establishment from those who could or seek to harm it. Perhaps it’s somewhere in-between. But this was not a brave and selfless “hero” willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. That Mueller died long ago–assuming he ever actually existed.
Thing is, it doesn’t need to matter. Dems can do this on their own–if they want to and have the guts.
2 Likes
Impeaching him the house does… what exactly. Lets say they impeach him in the house tomorrow, then what?
3 Likes
Of course you do----ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
6 Likes
We don’t impeach tomorrow - we impeach well past November 2020
The American populace values a fight, the Reds implicitly understand that politics is about showing gusts of power. Even a haymaker that completely misses the mark can shift perception (Benghazi)
The impeachment will distract Trump more than the Democratic nominees. Because all they need to do is reiterate the crimes outlined in the report.
Moreover the impeachment is a draw for new voters. They know that a vote for a D senator (our McConnell) will result in an impeachment. The point is to make the hearings continue until after 2020 - then have the vote in 2021 (and for those concerned about how that’s possible - just do it, retroactively ITMF)
We need to trim 2020 into an old fashioned fox hunt - bc the voters that can turn the tide love to see a public execution, even if it is their own
Once they flip their chants will scream for Trump and colluding GOP blood
2 Likes
People want to complain at the pace Dems are going, Mueller took over a year asking for drump to testify and only got a few i don’t recall answers back written by his lawyers about part of the investigation. Then they decided it would take to long to try to force him and ended it, it looks like they failed to talk to many of the key people.
3 Likes
Cynthia writes:
Democrats are uniquely given the power to remove a President.
No. The power to remove a President rests in the Senate, which is controlled by Mitch McConnell.
As a prosecutor, I wonder how many cases Cynthia brought to trial, knowing with 100% certainty that she’d lose.
3 Likes
Still chasing “Reagan Democrats” like it’s still a thing.
Still learning the wrong lessons from the 1984, 1994 elections
4 Likes
I’m of the opinion that sheer dumb luck will play as big a role in Trump’s downfall as any concerted planned effort. He’s been buoyed up by a heated economy. That could change. It’s hotter today in Paris than it is in Tucson. Events beyond Trump’s control, like climate change induced extreme weather are already in motion and an incompetent regime like ours is the least capable of dealing with them. Very bad things are happening. There was an article in the BBC yesterday asserting that we no longer have 12 years to mitigate climate change, but only 18 months!
Trump will be gone one way or another and the bill will be yuuuge.
14 Likes
If Dems walk away from this without doing anything, they will have shown themselves to be weak. And voters don’t respect weakness.
And the same people who say Dems should run on pocketbook issues also are not actually proposing major changes to anything. They’re too busy accusing the more leftist candidates of being socialists.
The fundamental problem is that the centrist remnants from the Reagan era don’t really have a clear idea of the direction that they want. They just want to be in charge. But if they’re not going to provide leadership on either law enforcement issues or on economic issues, how will they win? Let’s not forget that one of the undying tropes of the centrist Hillary supporters is to sneer when anybody says the phrase “economic anxiety”. I don’t see how people can do that for three years and then, in the fourth year, pretend to care deeply about economic issues.