House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-NY) were not on the same page about how many “high crimes and misdemeanors” to charge President Trump with, Politico reported.
Dems claim the impeachment must proceed despite the lack of documents and testimony tied up in courts, pleading the lack of time to wait on court rulings. Yet I seem to remember they frittered away several months after taking over the House before finally getting to work in a serious fashion regarding the myriad crimes committed by Trumpco. Maybe if they had approached all of this with a pronounced sense of urgency from day one after taking over the chamber they wouldn’t be in this jam.
Lets see what happens with the financial records pending Friday
Spanky might lose it completely
He’ll try and fire the Supreme Court for not protecting him
Jam today, nah
Fritters should be sprinkled lightly with cinnamon sugar…
I don’t recall any sprinkles in Congress. Let me check my diary…
Pelosi probably knows now that the Democrats lost the public opinion messaging war about the Mueller Report.
The Mueller Report was issued March 23d. Congress still as not seen it.
I was watching Chris Matthews last night and he mentioned that in the past, multiple articles of impeachment were produced as an attempt to provide cover for opposing party members to vote against some and for others (because you only need 1 to pass). The panel commented that in the new Trump GOP there’s not going to be cross voting, it will be go down strict party lines so there’s no point in trying to give House GOPers an opportunity to vote against 3 articles and for 1 as a CYA.
I never thought about it that way
Barr has full access to it. $50 says a few select Republicans have been granted access.
It’s Bill Barr. With the report in a file in his office. You tell me what he’s done since seeing it.
Not a single GOPer will cross party lines and vote for impeachment in the House, nor conviction in the Senate. Not one. They universally quake in fear of being targeted by Trump for the type of public slime campaign we see him dishing out to Lisa Page right now. Absolutely shake in their boots, piss down their legs in fear of it.
This is exactly how I see it. I think Pelosis telegraphed fears of going after Trump helped boost Trump’s mania.
While Pelosi is a lot stronger than Chuck Schumer and Obama combined, she’s still weak versus the Republican Confederacy that has taken over our government and nation.
Pelosi keeps spouting off about congress doing its constitutional duty and oath of office and YET Nancy refuesed to include articles for some important Trump law breaking and Constitutional violations such as:
Pelosi is a very rich establishment player…she is your basic Demopublican and one reason the Republican Confederacy has risen to take control of our government during her years in the Congress.
Democrats need to start giving us a true alternative to the Republican Confederacy or we will never regain our Democracy and the inclusion of important words in the Union’s US Constitutionsuch as “as part of a well regulated militia” which the Confederates have managed to remove from the Constitution without going through the amendment process!
My thoughts exactly.
I was frustrated by the slow walking pace set by Pelosi - my posts at the time reflect it. Glad she finally announced - and I’m in no ‘hurry’ to get the proceedings done and ‘out of the headlines’. I’ve asked why the rush to “Turn the Ball - the narrative - over to the Republican senate for them to control the media.”
From yesterday - Schiff’s response to ‘why not wait until we have more evidence’?
SCHIFF’S RESPONSE TO WHY NOT WAIT?
”Why don’t you just wait until you get the documents the White House refuses to turn over? People should understand what that argument really means. It has taken us eight months to get a lower court ruling that Don McGahn has no absolute immunity to defy Congress. Eight months. For one court decision. If it takes us another eight months to get a second court or maybe a Supreme Court decision, people need to understand that is not the end of the process. It comes back to us and then we ask questions because he no longer has absolute immunity … and then he claims something else, that his answers are privileged, and then we have to go back to court for another eight months or 16 months.
**The argument “Why don’t you just wait?” amounts to this: y don’t you just let him cheat in one more election? Why not let him cheat just one more time? Why not let him have foreign help just one more time?
That is what that argument amounts to.”
Well that’s interesting-
See, this is why I was on the ‘Stop slow-walking’ train immediately after the Mueller report. We SHOULD have started impeachment hearings IMMEDIATELY. “We don’t have the votes” – We got them after it was announced. “He’ll be acquitted” – yup, that was always a given. - “The Polls don’t/won’t support it” – Not the point.
The point is, was and always will be ‘Defending the constitution is the right thing to do.” And yes – perhaps if we had started in on the Mueller charges – he would NOT have gotten around to the Ukraine scandal. “He’ll impeach himself” – amounts to “LET HIM CHEAT AGAIN”
Let’s be clear – by wrapping this up and sending it to the Senate – we’re handing the ball over to the Republican’s. “The Narrative is the Ball” – And they’ll control the narrative during the Senate ‘trial’. They’ll control the narrative in the Pundit Echo Chamber (as they always do). And the general public will swallow it.
Hell, not even JOSH MARSHAL wants to watch this shit-show . “ I suspect most TPM Readers are watching far too closely to get a sense of how this all seems to loosely committed or only partially attentive voters. But let me share with you my own reaction: I had difficulty watching yesterday’s proceedings because I simply find the whole exercise too absurd. I skipped most of it.”
The GOP counts on ‘low information’ voter turn-out.
I get the impression that Pelosi was reluctant to start- and is in a hurry to ‘dot it and move on’. I’m hoping it’s not ‘all behind us now’ - by the time of the state of the union - and Trump isn’t left to strut the stage declaring victory while the house ‘moves on to the important work of the people’ - sending things to die in the Senate while more crimes are committed, the election is compromised and the constant right wing wurlitzer tune is "Acquittal is innocence - NO Collusion - NO Quid Pro Quo "
I’m hoping Pelosi is the eleventy-dimensional chess player that has a plan for after the acquittal - that will continue to highlight the corruption and depth of collusion between Trump Crime Syndicate and Russia. We need a plan to control the narrative for during and AFTER the Senate.
Is that what the primaries are supposed to be? I’d rather they spent time focussing on the good things - not highlighting Trump. I’d rather it be about the great plans - not the disaster of Trump. We can’t run on ‘anti-trump’ platforms. But an ‘anti trump’ wurlitzer is desperately needed BEHIND the campaigning of the final Dem nominee.
I’m hoping for a pony for Christmas.
The Republicans are also spending millions in anti-impeachment anti-Democrat ads to rally and reinforce their base, particularly in social media.
The Democrats are spending virtually nothing to counter this blitz.
But that’s assuming they find for settled law and don’t become activist and make $hit up as they go along, which is entirely possible.
Let’s be honest here: tell me when in the history of the nation, maybe even the world, that such corruption has existed. I understand the concept of why didn’t Nancy go for it sooner. The whole thing was so controversial and I am pretty sure they knew going in they were going to face a lot of obstruction. We’re here now and I’m not gonna complain about it because whatever they’re doing appears to be working.
I think what they did with the articles they’ve published is to go after the stuff that was in the Schiff and HJC hearings. None of the three points you’ve made, however valid, were part of the discussion in these hearings.
There are more hearings scheduled and there’s nothing to say that these points won’t be brought up. On point 2, once the taxes are released, they can do a fine job of going after tax evasion, but not until then.
The Democrats have enough evidence to impeach Trump 10 times over in a sane world - but this is not a sane world. So they have decided to take one clean kill shot as opposed to inflicting multiple wounds and hoping he bleeds out. It is not an unreasonable strategy.
Seeing this strategy, Trump and Giuliani are now using the hundreds of bad actors in Ukraine who are wiling to not only advance but embellish Trump’s fever dream about Ukrainian conspiracies to protect him from this one shot. This pizzagate-like bullshit will be raked through the media with an industrial strength manure spreader until the average person (and average reporter) can say that there seem to be many conflicting viewpoints and Trump may have been acting out of some kind of wrong but sincere motive.
Thinking people will see through this, but in the end I do not think any hearts or minds will be changed. Too many Russian names, too obscure a country, and too complex a plot (no matter how clearly it has been laid out) for the casual observer and voter.
It’s about 9 AM, EST.
Gloom has descended upon what is, basically, a nothing story…at best/worst a “Democrats in Disarray” one.
I see the Gloom Gang has outdone that.
OT @sickneffintired thanks for trying
This is exactly right. No Republicans will vote for any article of impeachment. Not enough Republican Senators will vote for conviction on any article of impeachment.
The game has changed: the game now is to clearly demonstrate the bad faith of today’s GOP. They put party before country. Their governing philosophy is authoritarian and solipsistic to the core. The House impeachment manager’s task is to wrap the entire GOP in the shitbag that is Donald John Trump and provide campaign material to every Democratic House and Senate candidate for the next 12 years.
At his rally last night, he went after Lisa Page again in his mocking style.
Even if you’re a Trump supporter, one should have reservations about the man who holds the highest office in the country acting like such an immature, shallow jerk. Instead, they cheer.
He went to a new low last night when talking about the FBI and called them scum:
“Look how they have hurt people. They’ve destroyed the lives of people that were great people. That are still great people,” the president continued. “Their lives have been destroyed by scum. Okay? By scum.”
Before the rally, Trump’s campaign released a doctored video clip with Trump as Thanos destroying Democrats.
It gets worse. Headline from Mediaite:
Fox News is Most Watched Cable News Outlet in Almost 70% of House Districts, Per New Study
But as Damon Linker pointed out, Democrats have not changed:
That’s how we’ve ended up in a situation where Republicans come to the political battlefield brandishing pistols and Bowie knives, while Democrats show up armed with policy position papers and noble-sounding speeches.
As a writer who cares about ideas and public policy debates, and as an American whose soul is stirred by elevated political rhetoric, I know which side I prefer. But I also know which side is likely to prevail in a firefight.
Well I’m all for critical thinking - not cynical thinking.
It’s easy to throw around nicknames like “Gloom Gang” and “Pelosi Sycophants” but it doesn’t do any good.
Why do we post here? Why have a ‘fourm’? - IT’s to air our thoughts, suggest alternative strategies, celebrate victories and commiserate losses. That’s what a community does.
Do we have any power beyond our vote - and our money - which according to the SCOTUS is our ‘speech’? Sure - we have the ability to GOTV, in various forms depending on an individuals abilities as well.
But our speech here - is read by folks like Josh and other pundits. THEY have a ‘bigger’ platform to preach from - and perhaps - just maybe - a little more influence on the party. I’ve seen Josh posts arguments for and against positions - based on comments and emails from US.
So I don’t see saying “Well… this could have been better - why not do more/less of THAT” as a bad thing. I’m not a ‘lockstep - my party right or wrong - guy’.
“Im not a member of any organized political party - I’m a democrat”.
It’s good to have discussions.