Impeachment in Secret: Closed hearings and selective leaks won’t persuade the public.

Wall Street Journal ^ | October 8, 2019 7:17 pm

[karpov]

Democrats are moving fast toward what looks like an inevitable vote to impeach President Trump, so why aren’t they doing more to persuade Americans who don’t already agree with them? They won’t convince anyone else with their current method of irregular order, secret hearings and selective leaks to the pro-impeachment press.

Start with the news that Democrats may attempt to keep secret the identity of the intelligence whistleblower whose complaint started the impeachment drive. The Washington Post reports that Chairman Adam Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee may have the official testify away from Capitol Hill, or allow only staff to attend, or obscure his image and voice as in a mafia trial.

This is astonishing. The key witness in an attempt to depose an elected President would testify without the American public getting a clue about who he is or what his motivations might be. Impeachment isn’t a criminal proceeding, so the right of Mr. Trump to face his accuser doesn’t apply. But you’d think that annulling the 2016 vote of 63 million Americans would be significant enough to demand witness transparency and a chance for both parties to test his knowledge and credibility.

One excuse for secrecy is witness safety, but the government can provide marshals to protect him. The whistleblower statute is intended to protect individuals against reprisal at work. It isn’t supposed to provide immunity from public scrutiny about claims aimed at ousting a President. We wonder if the goal here is to protect the whistleblower or prevent the American people from learning something that might cast doubt on his accusations.

This hide-the-witness strategy fits the way Democrats are handling impeachment more broadly. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has handed the heavy lifting to Mr. Schiff’s committee, probably because it can hide behind the appearance of protecting intelligence secrets.

[DarthVader]

It’s pissing off the public and military too. Democrats on the verge of being dealt with like French Aristocrats of 1788. We all know what happened then!

[cuban leaf]

The problem the democrats have is they are playing today’s wars with yesterday’s tactics. What they are doing with the total cooperation of the MSM would have worked in the days before Dan Rather was taken down by the internet and Freerepublic.

They simply no longer control the vernacular. With the internet in play, the truth always percolates to the top. It’s just a little slower. But once it builds up steam, it is unstoppable. That is what we are now seeing.

[pepsionice]

There will be literally thousands of scenes and ‘clips’ that the Trump-team will use for the 2020 campaign....that have nothing to do with the Democratic candidate, and everything to do with the ‘coup’ or the fake-impeachment.

Whether they realize it or not, the Democrats are handing Trump all the video necessary to lose on a magnificent scale.

[offduty]

Once again the WSJ gets it wrong. The Supreme Court has ruled in the past that the basic protections of due process DO apply to a political “hearing”. If they bothered to read the White House Counsel’s letter, there are the appropriate case citations listed in the footnotes.

[ClearCase_guy]

I’m hoping this completely falls apart soon and that documents are declassified. It would be nice to have some juicy red meat by early November. Let the public think about it. Make it obvious that a lot of what they have been hearing just isn’t so. Make it clear that the Democrats are dirty, dirty, dirty.

Should make for some interesting discussions at the Thanksgiving table. There might be fewer strident Liberals and more people willing to defend Trump.

[TexasFreeper2009]

they are not trying to shift public opinion, they are just trying to quickly impeach Trump to make their rabid base happy, knowing full well nothing will happen in the Senate.

[momincombatboots]

I humbly disagree. If citizens even start to revolt just take away their monthly checks and Medicare cards. They will boil their own children alive for that.

[AppyPappy]

This way, they have to vote on impeachment in order to find out what is in the Impeachment.

[Liz]

Excellent deconstruction.......

The tech-ignorant Democraps seem not to realize their every action is being scrutinized by millions of i-net users.

[Liz]

WHAT IS HE HIDING? Joe Biden explodes when a reporter asks a very simple question:
"Your official role as VP---Obama's hand-picked point man in charge of policy in Ukraine-----
and your son's lucrative job in Ukraine, how is that not a conflict of interest?"

Biden speaks out angrily: "I'm not going to respond to that!"

==========================================

Joe Biden still insists he never spoke with his son about overseas business, even as Hunter says he did.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER JOHN SOLOMON:
<><> in April 2014 then-VP Joe Biden set up the Burisma deal for his son.
<><> Obama's intel apparat was aware of Burisma transferring money from company accounts to Hunter Biden accounts.
<><> for public consumption, Burisma reportedly paid Hunter $50,000.......
<><> the actual payout was more than five times as much,
<><> (apparently the Burisma payout was split among Obama, Biden, the CIA and the FBI).
<><> at the same time Hunter was pocketing bigtime, some $5 billion IMF money to Ukraine went missing,

“Thanks Hunter-- my bank statement arrived. And Michelle loved the diamond from China you sent over.”

[Verginius Rufus]

Somehow the claims made on the basis of second-hand or third-hand knowledge by this CIA agent and Democrat operative, who can be called a whistleblower only because the rules defining a whistleblower were recently changed on his behalf, take priority over the actual transcript of what was said in the phone call? Bizarre.

[Verginius Rufus]

Biden's best hope for getting through this unscathed is Obama's involvement...particularly if Obama got some of the money. Obama remains sacrocsanct and untouchable.

We'll see if Barr or Durham have the fortitude to pursue the investigation wherever it leads or have to back off once the tracks lead to Obama.

[bert]

The issue of impeachment is too important to be left to the people. The holi poli cannot be trusted to comprehend the depths of the complex issues at stake.

That is why we have representatives, to convene and decide and then act on these super complex matters of state. Guilt is of no matter. It is the seriousness of the charge that must control........ Nancy Pelosi in secret conference on October 7, 2019

[Real Cynic No More]

Impeachment isn’t a criminal proceeding, so the right of Mr. Trump to face his accuser doesn’t apply. 

Really? Doesn't the Constitutional requirement that a President cannot be removed from office except for "high crimes or misdemeanors" move this to the criminal arena?

[SomeCallMeTim]

What if they had an impeachment, and no one noticed? I think that's what they're trying to do. Seriously.. NO ONE in my professional or personal circles is talking about this "Impeachment". I'm old enough to have lived through the two modern era impeachments: Nixon and Clinton. For both of those, that's ALL people talked about, for months. It was huge news. Today? NADA.

I have several liberal friends. Now, granted... after the turmoil of the past two years, we've more or less declared a "truce", and opted to not speak much about politics. But, we've always kept on making little snide remarks now and then. Like, when I slurred my words, I'd say, "Oh... I just pulled a Biden". Or, they'd make a quip about a pumpkin being "as orange as Trump's hair". But now? NOTHING!

I haven't heard the word "impeachment" spoken by ANYONE not on TV or radio. Not one. It's one big nothingburger.

[1Old Pro]

why aren’t they doing more to persuade Americans who don’t already agree with them?

For starters, they have no substance with which to convince anyone. Secondly, they are hoping the willing Leftist activist media will continue lying about their effort and convince the brain dead for them - but it ain't happening. This media and Dem charade only hurts the Dems electoral chances in 2020.

[Liz]

Biden's best hope for getting through this unscathed is Obama's involvement...particularly if Obama got some of the money.

I doubt very much Obama will do anything to save Joe's ***.
The pic of Obama shaking Hunter's hand at the game (above) is going viral........
Says a lot about the threesome's involvement in the Burisma looting.

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, from early 1973 until Nixon's resignation, that was the big news story (with occasional interruptions like for the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, also known as the Yom Kippur War). Sam Ervin's TV hearings got a lot of viewers.

Art Buchwald had a column during that time which wondered, "what did people talk about before Watergate?"

[DarthVader]

The sentiment is there and the difference is that I get paid to know such things for sure.