This is the constitutional crisis we feared

washingtonpost.com ^ | Oct 9, 2019 | Paul Waldman

[ransomnote]

For nearly three years, President Trump’s critics have warned that there may come a point when we face a genuine constitutional crisis, one that threatens our very Democratic system. That constitutional crisis has arrived.

The White House has released an extraordinary letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to congressional Democrats, a document that will live on in infamy from this day forward as evidence of how profoundly Donald Trump corrupted the office of the president and everyone around him.

Despite the fact that it appears under the signature of the chief lawyer of the White House, the letter reads like some combination of a deeply misinformed seventh-grader’s social studies paper and a rant from Sean Hannity, randomly tossing around terms like “civil liberties” and “separation of powers” without any apparent understanding of what they mean.

Boiled down to its essence, the letter asserts that Trump is beyond the reach of oversight, of impeachment, and of any checks and balances from the legislative branch. Because he thinks Congress is not treating him “fairly” (the word “fair” appears eight times in the letter), Trump has decided that he can issue a blanket refusal to “participate in your partisan and unconstitutional inquiry.” All requests for documents and testimony will be rejected, and all subpoenas will be thrown in the trash.

To put this in context, there are regular disputes between Congress and the executive branch over particular subpoenas or other ways Congress exercises its oversight power.

“The executive rarely if ever is willing to give up everything Congress wants on the terms that Congress wants,” Professor Melissa Murray of New York University Law School told me. But the usual procedure is that after some negotiation, “they reach some compromise that’s mutually acceptable. MORE AT THE LINK

[ransomnote]

The president responded to the fake impeachment party's demands (subpoenas) succinctly, by pointing out that there IS no impeachment investigation until ....oh....I don't know....those who represent the will of the people in Congress....ya know....VOTE on it? Here is the article writer's response:

"The White House has released an extraordinary letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to congressional Democrats, a document that will live on in infamy from this day forward as evidence of how profoundly Donald Trump corrupted the office of the president and everyone around him.

Despite the fact that it appears under the signature of the chief lawyer of the White House, the letter reads like some combination of a deeply misinformed seventh-grader’s social studies paper and a rant from Sean Hannity, randomly tossing around terms like “civil liberties” and “separation of powers” without any apparent understanding of what they mean."

[1Old Pro]

Boiled down to its essence, the letter asserts that Trump is beyond the reach of oversight, of impeachment

WHAT Impeachment? The House hasn't voted you numskull

[ClearCase_guy]

Summary: “We tried to railroad this guy, and he fought back. That’s a Constitutional Crisis. He’s supposed to roll over and give up. Didn’t he get the memo?”

[bk1000]

“a document that will live on in infamy from this day forward as evidence of how profoundly Donald Trump corrupted the office of the president and everyone around him.”

LIAR!....oh wait...it’s the WaPo...of course it’s a lie.

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

Seems like Paul Waldman has a case of TDS butt hurt.

Maybe someone should inform him of Donald J.Trump’s Butt Hurt salve #45. He needs some bad.

5.56mm

[MNJohnnie]

Pure infantile hysteric idiocy. A total ignorance of even basic fact so OF COURSE it is published in the Washington Post.

And they wonder why NO ONE takes the Fake News seriously?

President Trump learned from the fake Muller Clown show. No more open ended fishing expositions Democrat Fascist Party. Either put up or shut up.

[colorado tanker]

They don’t dare publish the actual letter. That might expose the lies this guy and the rest of the media are telling.

[MNJohnnie]

No surprise. Another butt hurt infantile Facist wanna be

Paul Waldman is a liberal / progressive American op-ed columnist and senior writer for The American Prospect, as well as a contributor to The Week and a blogger for the Washington Post’s Plum Line blog. Wikipedia

[forgotten man]

The president is the top law enforcement office in the country. Trump is investigating Biden’s crimes. End of story!

[RayChuang88]

Psst--the DEMOCRATS created this Constitutional malarkey by NOT going through the proper legal procedure to do Impeachment like what happened against Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon.

[Lurkinanloomin]

That constitutional crisis has arrived.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the same people who cheered the Kenyan from Indonesia’s usurpation.

[BobL]

“The White House has released an extraordinary letter...a document that will live on in infamy from this day forward as evidence of how profoundly Donald Trump corrupted the office of the president and everyone around him. “

The guy is so full of hyperbola that it’s not even possible to read his crap. He needs to repeat 4th grade if he hopes to influence anyone.

[Political Junkie Too]

... the letter asserts that Trump is beyond the reach of oversight, of impeachment, and of any checks and balances from the legislative branch.

The RED areas represent the American people who are being disenfranchised from the impeachment process.

The red areas are disenfranchised when the Democrats refuse a full House vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry.

The red areas are disenfranchised when Schiff refuses to let minority members of the Intelligence Committee participate in the process and keeps information from them.

The red areas are disenfranchised when Pelosi and Schiff move to hide the identity of the so-called whistleblower from Republicans on the committee.

The Speaker of the House is refusing to let the representatives of the People of half the country, and some entire states, to be heard.

-PJ

[Chaguito]

Major league pearl-clutching with this one.

[Hostage]

Paul Waldputz is having ‘fear’! Shudder!

Hey Waldputz, tell Bezos he ain’t seen FEAR until he sees US Marines bust through his compound at 5 am with fully loaded pieces.

Regards,
Your Neighborhood Deplorable

[Jim Noble]

Boiled down to its essence, the letter asserts that Trump is beyond the reach of oversight, of impeachment

Well, yes, he IS beyond the reach of oversight. Congress does not oversee the Chief Executive under a unitary executive such as we have, what he does and how he does it is none of Congress' business, EXCEPT:

He is, of course, not beyond the reach of impeachment. The House has the perfect right to impeach him tomorrow (if they dare), and I wish that they would do so instead of hiding behind a pretend, phony investigation when the votes are already counted and the outcome is known.

When (not if) this House impeaches Trump, it will lend clarity to a lot of things they have successfully kept hidden for the past two and a half years.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

From Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Waldman

Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman (born February 27, 1968) is a liberal/progressive American op-ed columnist and senior writer ... Public Policy Center. From 2004 to 2009, he worked at Media Matters for America.

_______________________________________________________

LOL. Hilarious. The Compost hires a commie hack from Media Matters, as if that is journalism.

I will never understand why Freepers continue to post commie propaganda here. I will never understand it. If I wanted to be bombarded by commie propaganda, I would watch CNN or subscribe to the Compost.

[CIB-173RDABN]

This is good. They are increasing the anticipation of Anti-Trumpers. Adding to the fantasy bubble they live in.

Like all bubbles it is going to burst one of these days.

Then they will have TDS stage II.

[chief lee runamok]

            

Time to bring back traveling by rail for propaganda spewing reporters.

[Seruzawa]

The WP is entirely vile. Nothing but lies that have Goebbels smiling in Hell right now.