Friday, September 20, 2019

No, it still won't work


a) it won't "cause pain."  Not unless it is handled well in itself.  An impeachment proceeding is not the "system" that will save us all from feckless politicians and corrupt politicians.  We voted for this shit, we have to wade through it to the bitter end.

b)  Impeachment MIGHT cause subpoenas and other things to suddenly take wings and fly, but don't count on it.  The Trump position is that the President is sacroscanct and even investigations can't be inveighed against him (well, not when they want to see the financials.  I have a memory of Mueller deciding that was not a hill he wanted to die on, because it would protract his investigation beyond the end of Trump's first term.). The issue with the IG IC statute seems pretty damned clear, yet DOJ is playing games with the concept of jurisdiction to argue no one can know what the IG IC knows, even apparently the IG IC, because jurisdiction is lacking.  IOW, it involves the POTUS, and none may investigate the King!...er, POTUS.  It's all of a piece.

Impeachment has been proposed as the magic bullet which will sweep away all judicial objections to Congressional inquiry, but that doesn't mean the Administration won't go to court anyway, to get the courts to approve (or disapprove) of every inquiry, subpoena, individual hearing, hell, individual questions, if they think they can swing it.  The simple fact is, the system works because everyone (essentially; even the Mafia, because they don't want to get caught) respects the workings of the system.  Trump doesn't.

He will throw feces at everybody, non-stop, until he is removed from office.  Impeachment will not be the stately process of the Watergate hearings (which were stately and steely and implacable only in retrospect; I was only 16 going on 17, but I remember that much).  It will be the same Lewandowski-esque testimony, or more likely witnesses refusing subpoenas because "privilege," which will have to be litigated person by person, because Trump will do it that way, and as irate as Congresspersons might get, some will still call them feckless, and Lindsay Graham will still call for military strikes against the House side of the Capitol, and Ainsley Earnhardt will continue to have Daddy issues on basic cable, and candidates for the Democratic nomination will continue to talk about the issues rather than Trump (much to the annoyance of political Twitter), and Trump will continue to declare victory and "game over!" even though the ref hasn't blown the whistle yet.

I mean, do you think impeachment hearings will stop this, or throw gasoline on the fire?


Not that I fear such baseless complaints per se, but do they gain more credibility in the highly partisan atmosphere or months of impeachment hearings punctuated by long pauses for court cases to play themselves out, witness by witness?

Same as it ever was, in other words, but with more room to declare Congress is doing nothing.  Hell, Mitch McConnell might even relent on his new found interest in voter security.

And we still won't get rid of Trump until next November; no matter what.


Adding: the Democrats who won in Texas (at least) in 2018 didn't run on "getting Donald Trump," although the sub-text was anti-Trump. People voting against Trump next November may not also vote for the Democrat in their district if all the House did is investigate Trump.  Every representative has to make that calculation themselves. Twitter and political bloggers don't run the country.

2 comments:

  1. Rmj,I agree. Trump and gang will stonewall every subpoena no matter what the investigation is called.

    And one more thing. Folks can agree or disagree with Nancy Pelosi in her hesitation to launch an impeachment inquiry, but would anyone disagree that she can count votes? The last number I heard of Democrats calling for impeachment was 137. Pelosi could twist arms to get more votes, but could she reach a majority to launch a formal impeachment inquiry? I doubt it.

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    1. My thoughts exactly on Pelosi. Heard a poll mentioned today that most voters aren't all that interested in investigations, either. With Trump stonewalling every witness and no John Dean in sight, it won't be "All The President's Men" again.

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