It's Only Day 3 ...

Sheesh. We’re only in Day 3 of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “Formal Impeachment Inquiry” and I’m already bored.

Will this help Warren or Biden, our sharpest journalists who seldom care about substance are asking. Or perhaps that is the “real” substance of this story.

Rachel Maddow is continuing to recite her long drawn out bedtime stories, such as about Spiro Agnew, whose request to be impeached was denied.

Many of the same people who pitched tents on cable news to repeatedly assure us that the brilliant Robert Mueller would have Trump dead to rights are now telling us that Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s Zelensky is the only smoking gun necessary to impeach and that many Republican Senators may well have their “come to Jesus” moments when required to vote in the Senate.

And John Dean, yes, that John Dean, together with Carl Bernstein, are serenading us on CNN with flashbacks to Watergate and comparisons between then and now.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Don’t misunderstand me. Trump deserves to be impeached and convicted. But, above all, I want a Democrat in the White House in 2021.

It is Time for House Democrats to Initiate Impeachment Proceedings Against Trump

WASHINGTON AND THE NATION, HEADS UP. I've changed my position. It is now time for House Democrats to begin well-organized impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. These proceedings will begin as investigations but let there be no question they are directed at considering the adoption of Articles of Impeachment. And the grounds for impeachment must go far beyond Trump's obstruction of justice as documented in the Mueller Report, and Trump and his team's involvement with Russia and Russian meddling during and in the 2016 election. It must include Trump's stonewalling Congress, his corruption, his misuse of campaign funds vis-a-vis Stormy Daniels, and more. BUT, House Democrats must organize for this undertaking, which they have failed miserably to do thus far. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi must change her stance and lead the charge.

 

Trump will not be convicted by the Senate even if Articles of Impeachment are brought. Sadly, Senators like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio will likely make sure of that. But the nation will learn of Trump's high crimes and misdemeanors nonetheless as the 2020 elections approach.

 

Democrats also, however, must balance their impeachment proceedings with a full focus during the 2020 election season on substantive policy issues that deeply concern the American people if Democrats are to hold the House, win the Presidency and perhaps take the Senate in 2020. These include providing for universal healthcare; gun regulation; infrastructure; student debt restructuring; an assault on the opioid epidemic; support for NATO; restoring a more balanced foreign policy that defends against and pushes back against China trade violations, Iran destabilizing activities, Russian meddling in elections and aggressions in Europe, but doesn't coddle dictators and autocrats; support for trade unionism and a decent minimum wage; support for and not ridiculing of urban centers, answers to homelessness, and the like; renewed protection of the environment; a humane immigration policy that doesn't separate children from their families, supports DACA young people, equitably addresses the status of long term undocumented immigrants in this country, but doesn't result in open borders; eliminating Trump executive orders that have undermined American values and its national interest.

 

Jake Sherman of POLITICO put things in perspective in this morning's (Sept 20, 2019) POLITICO Playbook as follows:

 

"GET THINKING ... HAS WASHINGTON ever been so frozen and so handcuffed by a president and his whims?

 

-- REPUBLICANS say they want to tighten gun laws, but they won't dare to utter a word about what kind of gun-control legislation they would support until Trump makes clear what he would support. And he's been almost completely silent. Burgess Everett: "The Senate surrenders legislating on guns to Trump": Sen. Johnny Isakson: "First time ever in history when the president sets the agenda every day when he tweets at 4 in the morning."

 

-- DEMOCRATS are having trouble conducting oversight because the White House has succeeded in dictating the terms under which they can do it -- without repercussion. The White House has blocked material witnesses. And the witnesses they can't block come to Capitol Hill and don't talk.

 

-- DEMOCRATS decline to impeach the president because, in part, they're worried about a sliver of members of Congress who have slivers of their constituencies who might or might not be offended by impeachment proceedings.

 

-- WHEN REPORTERS ask White House aides for information about policy, they are often hamstrung because a) they either have no idea what the president is thinking, or b) they are waiting for him to make his view public on Twitter."

 

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/09/20/how-trump-has-handcuffed-washington-479490?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000015a-dc5e-ddd0-adde-dd7eedc10000&nlid=630318