Posted on 12/20/2019 6:20:36 AM PST by billorites
One of our perennial school pranks was to place a whoopee cushion secretly on the chair of an unsuspecting teacher. When she sat, she would launch the resounding clap of flatulence. That, metaphorically, is what just happened to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Unfortunately, she placed it on her own chair. The embarrassing noise sounded when she announced she would delay sending the House’s Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.
This delay was a nakedly partisan ploy — and a major error of political judgment. Every day it continues will cost Democrats in the general election.
Why?
First, the Democrats should be emphasizing only the constitutional necessity of impeachment. That’s why Speaker Pelosi wore funereal black for the House vote, why she tried in vain to stop jubilant Democrats from taking selfies after the vote. (She seemingly couldn’t control Washington Post reporters, who did the same thing. Democracy dies in derangement.) The delay highlights the Democrats’ raw political calculations. Of course, those calculations are always the drivers for both parties in Washington. What Pelosi’s stunt does, though, is put them front and center.
The real motives are painfully obvious. Democrats want Trump out not for some specific reasons (the articles of impeachment are virtually inkblots) but because they truly, deeply hate him. Republicans want to keep him, most because they like him, some because they think the party will implode if they remove him now. Both parties are united. Impeachment only solidified their stances.
Since partisan reasons for impeachments are widely condemned as illegitimate, proponents must build bipartisan support and show their rationale rises above party. In Nixon’s case they did; in Bill Clinton’s case, they failed. They failed again in Trump’s case. The hearings chaired by Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler did nothing to weaken Republican support for Trump and actually undermined it slightly among independents. Pelosi is now compounding the damage.
Refusing to hand impeachment articles to the Senate looks like partisan pique because it is. Does anyone really think the goal is to ensure fairness? The Speaker’s claim would be credible only if House procedures had themselves been scrupulously fair, if they had allowed Republicans to call witnesses, if they had promptly shared witness transcripts, if they had allowed the president’s lawyers to participate in his defense. They didn’t.
Earlier impeachments had been even-handed. This one wasn’t. Because House Democrats ran their impeachment Frank-Sinatra style — ‘I did it my way’ — their call for different procedures in the Senate rings hollow. The only question now is whether independent voters will buy what Pelosi is selling. That’s doubtful, and Republicans will pounce on it.
Second, the delay undercuts a central Democratic rationale for impeachment, that Trump’s remaining in office is a clear and present danger. That was the main reason Democrats gave for rushing through the hearings and votes, for refusing to wait for federal courts to decide on White House claims of Executive Privilege. That argument bleeds out, fatally, every day Pelosi delays.
Finally, delay brings us closer and closer to the November 2020 vote, when citizens can decide for themselves. Impeachment and removal are designed to prevent that choice. Again, that rationale is most compelling if the danger is both grave and immediate. Choosing to delay destroys that argument. It says, unmistakably, we can afford to wait.
Why do it, then? Perhaps it is simple misjudgment, either of the public response or the Senate’s, which is sure to defend its prerogatives. More likely, it is Pelosi’s calculation that she cannot maintain her speakership if she opposes the left-wing of her caucus. She made the same calculation when she finally agreed to impeachment hearings. She must think it is better to risk a possible Democratic loss of the House next November than to risk losing her leadership when that election is over. On that, she may well be right. She certainly knows better than outsiders how to judge her caucus’s votes and her party’s activist sentiments.
Still, it is a dangerous game, one the public is far more likely to see as cynical, partisan manipulation than as sober, constitutional responsibility. For the country’s sake, Speaker Pelosi should remove the whoopee cushion now, before she sits on it again.
Unless they hand it to the Senate, it is not an impeachment. It is a “show impeachment”.
But then, that is what it has been from day one anyway...
Funny thing, Trump isn’t officially impeached yet. You know that old line about the job not being done until the paperwork is finished? Impeachment isn’t complete until the articles are officially delivered to the Senate.
Schiff or get off the pot, Nancy
Censure plus.
It’s some stratagem of theirs. Ivan always has a plan. She didn’t just think it up at the last minute.
An op-ed by Noah Feldman, Harvard Law School prof, who testified in the impeachment proceedings against Trump,
argues against withholding the articles of impeachment. “Both parts are necessary to make an impeachment under the Constitution.
FELDMAN: “The House must actually send the articles and send managers to the Senate to prosecute the impeachment.
If the House does not communicate its impeachment to the Senate, Trump could legitimately say he wasn’t impeached at all.”
Until the paper work is done it’s no impeachment at all.
Not Very Secret Double-Secret Probation!
“...looks like partisan pique”? Who is this clown kidding?
In fact, go back to Clinton....She fought to censure him rather than impeach him.
I’m an uneducated deplorable but it sounds to me like a prosecutor gathers all the evidence and decides there is enough evidence to go to trial and then does nothing.
You can’t be tied, convicted or acquitted if there is no trial.
The media controls whether or not it’s perceived as partisan. What do you suppose they’ll do? Trump will have to think of something because ever institution one would rely on in such a scenario is against him and has been thoroughly corrupted
The democrats ran the House "inquiry" with all the fairness and due processes of a banana republic "trial" - tightly controlling which witnesses were allowed, what questions were allowed, what answers were allowed - all to reach the foregone conclusion.
Now they are seeing that not only is the Senate not going to convict (that was always a long shot hope anyway)...but the Senate might actually show some backbone and turn around and use some of their tactics against them...even worse, maybe actually draw out some of the criminal acts (committed by democrats)... Now the democrats are suddenly reluctant to lose control of the process.
Well 'rats, you let the radical end of your party drag you down, it's going to play out badly for you no matter how this goes. If I were the 'rats, I'd get it over with quick so as to give themselves the maximum amount of time for damage control and recovery before the election. As a freedom and liberty loving American though, I hope they continue to drag their feet. GOP campaign managers and candidates with a little backbone can ride this farce right into office. Every democrat that loses his or her seat or position is a win for America.
It is pure partisan hatred. democrats are unfit to govern.
The author is utterly ignorant. The Clinton impeachment inquiry was bipartisan. Clinton had full representation, the dems could subpoena witnesses, and most importantly exculpatory evidence was shared. This time the exculpatory evidence (witness testimony) is locked in Schiff's safe. You can thank Nadler for that outcome.
Granted the Clinton impeachment vote was not bipartisan, but that vote was at least based on a fair investigation.
Nancy Pelosi knows if she can present the ‘perception she still has control’ , and create an ‘illusion’ that she does, it will keep her base and the press in line and distract from what she otherwise knows is actually occurring....that's exactly how she rolls!
Censure plus.
I don’t think so. Just bickering over process and dragging this out a bit. Kavanaugh on steroids, basically.
Under the Clinton impeachment, articles of impeachment weren't exhibited to the Senate until weeks after the house resolved to exhibit them.
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