The WSJ had an article yesterday in which the authors, who obviously didn’t watch the trial, blamed the acquittal solely on “one party rule”.
“One-party dominance in a democracy means the main political debates occur in the ruling party, including personal political feuds. That explains the overwhelming decision by Republicans in the Texas state Senate on Saturday to acquit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on 16 articles of impeachment filed by the Republican Texas House.”
What really happened Saturday is that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the state Senate, chose to rescue Mr. Paxton in a rebuke to his rival, House Speaker Dade Phelan. All politics is very local here.
We wrote at the beginning of the Senate trial that Mr. Patrick looked like he might examine the evidence with an open mind. He had kept quiet during the House debate. But we were wrong. It’s now obvious the fix was in from the start and that Mr. Patrick lobbied his fellow GOP Senators to unite against the House articles of impeachment. Only two GOP Senators voted to convict Mr. Paxton, and one of them is 78-year-old Robert Nichols, an independent-minded committee chairman.
Mr. Patrick’s bias was on display immediately after the Senate trial ended when he blamed it all in highly personal fashion on Mr. Phelan. “The Speaker and his team rammed through the first impeachment of a statewide-elected official in Texas in over 100 years while paying no attention to the precedent,” Mr. Patrick said. He added that the impeachment should never have happened and that he would move to rewrite the state constitution so it doesn’t happen like this again.”
I saw the WSJ editorial as well and was shocked at its shallowness and dishonesty. The impeachment of Paxton was conducted mostly in secret in the Texas House, which was an indication that the effort lacked substance. Paxton fought, and the case against him fell apart before the Texas Senate because no violation of law was shown. A separate criminal investigation based on securities fraud claims before Paxton was elected remains pending and seems unfounded as well.
Patrick’s bias??? You don’t like truth... Maybe you can work on the sold out to China GA rinos before making stupid statements about TX leaders. Kemp&Raffy are a major part of the 2020coup... ymmv
How does the WSJ survive even? They seem to face the same problem as Fox. They could have their own sandbox all to themselves but they want to dig in the other over crowded sandbox.
“But we were wrong. It’s now obvious the fix was in from the start and that Mr. Patrick lobbied his fellow GOP Senators to unite against the House articles of impeachment.”
Strange that they should focus in on the supposed bias of Patrick and gloss over the fact that on cross-examination, there was no evidence presented.
And they whine about a fix when the Republican representatives voted wholesale for the impeachment and the democrat Senators voted wholesale for the impeachment.
Fix??? The Journal is pathetic.
Atty Buzbee said it shouldn’t have been necessary for Paxton to prove his innocence but that is what they had to do.
Another case brought by ignoring the American Constitution for innocent till proven guilty. The TX House did not even allow Paxton to respond to their accusations. All over our country the Justice Dept is ignoring the Constitution.