Friends, it's finally happened: the House of Representatives has voted on articles of impeachment directed at President Trump. Now, today's vote was purely symbolic, but the numbers are interesting. 58 Democrats (and zero Republicans) voted to proceed with the articles of impeachment. Keep in mind that these articles didn't even specify a violation of the law -- they merely advanced the argument that Trump is a big meanie stupidhead, and thus should be ejected from office. To my mind, 58 seems like a low number. Liberals all across the country are embracing impeachment wholeheartedly, and they long ago convicted Trump, in their warped minds, of treason, obstruction of justice, jaywalking, and other assorted high crimes and misdemeanors. In addition, any Democrat who DOESN'T vote for impeachment risks a primary challenge from the left. Why not get on with it and impeach him, therefore? Partly, their hesitation is a result of fidelity to the Democratic leadership, which believes that we need to let the investigations of Trump play out before impeaching him (big of them, I know). Partly, Democrats are also worried that impeachment could backfire. After all, Republican efforts to impeach President Clinton only polarized the country and gave him breathing space to rebuild his popularity. He left office in good shape, if his polling numbers are a reliable indicator. Impeachment is an extreme remedy, after all, and in some ways Democrats might prefer to wound Trump rather than remove him. They seem to expect that they will make massive gains in 2018 -- why jeopardize those gains by pursuing a risky impeachment gambit? For now, President Trump is safe. Presumably, though, Mueller will give the impeachment crowd cover to advance their agenda out in the open, and in strength, soon enough. Don't be surprised if Mueller waits to release his specious "findings" until they can do maximum damage to Republicans. Above all, gird yourselves, because this is only the beginning of a long, gruesome fight!
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/363544-house-rejects-democratic-resolution-to-impeach-trump#.WihRfp5ieWA.twitter
Dr. Waddy: I do not know enough about the history of Presidential impeachment to know if it was credibly proposed between that of Andrew Johnson and that promised to Richard Nixon. Dems are still smarting from the deserved impeachment of their rapist darling in the '90's and consider it grounds for a payback. Let them bustle; they discredit themselves only.
ReplyDeleteTo the best of my knowledge, no President came close to impeachment between Andrew Johnson and Nixon, although Harding resigned and might have been impeached otherwise. I think what undercuts the Dems' credibility on this issue is: a) they were ready to impeach before Trump even took office, and b) they are seemingly indifferent to the justification for impeachment. They've created a long list of things they don't like re: Trump, and they're happy to impeach based on any of them. Here I speak of the hard left, mind you. Luckily the Democratic establishment realizes they need to tread cautiously.
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