Posted on 12/19/2019 9:15:42 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It’s hard to believe the Speaker’s latest stunt will go on for very long. I’ll confess: Last night, when I was first told that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was toying with the idea of not delivering the two articles of impeachment voted by the House against President Trump, I assumed it was a joke.
For these last weeks, the Democrat-dominated chamber has been in a mad rush to impeach the president. Democrats even tacked on article two — “obstruction of Congress” — because, they told us, time could not be wasted engaging in the usual negotiation and litigation over legislative demands for executive branch information. Trump is a clear and present threat to “continue” undermining our elections, we were admonished. That’s why he needs to be impeached right now. That’s why the political class cannot responsibly leave his fate up to the sovereign, the People, who will vote in November.
But now that the deed is done, it’s . . . hey, not so fast.
Pelosi and Democratic leadership have convinced themselves there may be advantage in delaying the formal, ministerial delivery of the impeachment articles — as if Mitch McConnell were in as much a hurry to receive them as Democrats were to conjure them up. The thought is that this latest strategic petulance might pressure Senator McConnell into promising a full-blown trial, including summoning as witnesses top aides of the president whom the House didn’t bother to summon because tangling over privilege issues would have slowed up the works.
So it’s not a joke, but I still have to laugh. When I was a prosecutor negotiating plea deals, I always found the most pathetic defense lawyers were the ones who acted like they were playing with the House money when, in stark reality, it was they who needed something from me. Now here’s Pelosi trying to play hard to get with McConnell who, I imagine, couldn’t care less how long Democrats want to dither.
What we’ve just seen is the most partisan impeachment in American history, every step of it politically calculated. Obviously, if Democrats perceived advantage in stretching the process out, it would still be going on. There would be more witnesses; more 300- or 600-page committee reports to try to add heft and gravity to vague allegations of inchoate misconduct; more speeches about Trump as a threat to democracy and life as we know it; etc., etc.
To the contrary, Pelosi & Co. want this train wreck in the rearview mirror ASAP. The public is indifferent and polls are edging in Trump’s favor. On our local news this morning, the third impeachment of a president of the United States in American history couldn’t crack the top stories — it came in behind cold weather (in December) and the rescue of an elderly man in a gym by a couple of off-duty cops.
No one, of course, has to explain this to McConnell. In public, at least, he’s not a laughing-his-head-off kinda guy, but if he were, he would be.
It’s hard to believe the Speaker’s latest stunt will go on for very long. In the Senate this morning, the Democrats’ minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, renewed his demands about trial procedures, discovery, and witness testimony. There was no discernible hint of doubt that the House would soon deliver its impeachment articles, such as they are.
But since we’ll be playing trivial pursuit for a more few hours (days?), we might as well ask: As long as the House withholds the impeachment articles from the Senate, has Trump been impeached?
In the law, there are many situations in which an outcome is known, but it is not a formal outcome until some ministerial act is taken. A grand jury can vote an indictment, for example, but the defendant is not considered indicted until the charges are filed with the clerk of the court. A defendant can be found guilty by a jury, but there is technically no conviction until the judgment is “entered” by the trial court, usually months later when sentence is imposed. An appellate court can issue a ruling that orders a lower court to take some action, but the lower court has no jurisdiction to act in the case until issuance of the appellate court’s “mandate” — the document that formally transfers jurisdiction.
Plainly, Congress has similar ministerial acts of transference that must occur in order for legislation to pass. Were that not the case, Speaker Pelosi would not be talking about delaying the transfer of impeachment articles.
So it’s all well and good for the Speaker to hold up the works that Democrats, five minutes ago, were breathlessly telling us had to be carried out with all due haste. But many scholars take the position that the Constitution requires a trial if there has been an impeachment. If such a trial cannot properly occur unless and until articles of impeachment have been transferred from the House to the Senate, and Speaker Pelosi won’t transfer them, has President Trump actually been impeached?
Sure, it’s a stupid question . . . but we’re living in stupid times.
The homosexuals are mentally ill, ignorant, terribly uneducated, and about as low IQ as any group. If it weren’t for them promoting each other they wouldn’t get anywhere.
Dude, don’t you know, when discussing despicable, pinko commie geek, slime sucking scum bag 💼 POS, humorless rat 🐀 bastards, you are not allowed to use humor. These ass hats 🎩 don’t get it. 😁🤣😆 Actually, I thought it was pretty funny. 👍😂 By all means, continue. 👍
That matter is basic to official communication, authenticity. To put it into perspective of the current impeachment nonsense, here's a fictitious dialogue between the leaders of the two Chambers of Congress:
Speaker of the House: “The House of Representatives has impeached the President.”
Senate Majority Leader: “Prove it.”
House Speaker: “I have Articles of Impeachment.”
Senate Leader: “Until I have it, that is hearsay.”
House Speaker: “Everybody knows.”
Senate Leader: “Madam, you jest. You expect the Senate to try a sitting President on rumor?! Prove the Impeachment in the proper manner.”
House Speaker: “What do you require?”
Senate Leader: “The same as always; the Articles of Impeachment signed, sworn, sealed, authenticated, recorded, registered as transmitted by the House of Representatives, and registered as received by the Senate.”
House Speaker: “I think I will hold onto the Articles of Impeachment for awhile.”
Senate Leader: “Then, madam, you have proven nothing. Therefore, Impeachment has not occurred, and the Senate will not convene a trial of anyone. Good day!”
An abuse of power has occurred. It was and is being perpetrated by the House Democrats. Their actions are rising to the level of sedition and treason.
Irrelevant. He was one of the dems’ star witnesses.
McCarthy has completely missed the major point. By the U. S. Constitution, all citizens are INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty. If Nan fails to turn over the impeachment charges, not only is Trump not impeached, he is INNOCENT!
I am reminded of this scene in the Patriot.
Pride will do * click the pic
Ridicule is a very powerful weapon and besides
If we don't laugh, we'd have to cry.
Just to be clear I'm not in any way suggesting that
we are up against geniuses in this case...
quite the opposite.
7
It’s astonishing that in 2019 we have to post pictures with HTML in FreeRepublic.
The website has not made any advances in literally 2 decades.
Regarding Pelosi's requirement for "fairness" and Ginsburg's claim of partisanship:
A well-constituted court for the trial of impeachments is an object not more to be desired than difficult to be obtained in a government wholly elective. The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself. The prosecution of them, for this reason, will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused. In many cases it will connect itself with the pre-existing factions, and will enlist all their animosities, partialities, influence, and interest on one side or on the other; and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the comparative strength of parties, than by the real demonstrations of innocence or guilt.The delicacy and magnitude of a trust which so deeply concerns the political reputation and existence of every man engaged in the administration of public affairs, speak for themselves. The difficulty of placing it rightly, in a government resting entirely on the basis of periodical elections, will as readily be perceived, when it is considered that the most conspicuous characters in it will, from that circumstance, be too often the leaders or the tools of the most cunning or the most numerous faction, and on this account, can hardly be expected to possess the requisite neutrality towards those whose conduct may be the subject of scrutiny.
-PJ
I also Honor that, perhaps they were sick and unable to be here. You do earn your stripes though. Hope He supports Free Republic now that they are back fighting the fight.
Probably.
don’t have to be an expert to read and pay attention.
If you scream in the forest and no one hears you, did you yell?
not analogous. The vote was public and the articles passed.
I agree
True though they where not filed
please provide proof that impeachment includes filing.
My proof does not include that requirement and neither is it acknowledged by the hundreds of sources I have cited last night and this morning, including the president and his advisors who call him “impeached.
You can want something to be true, but that doesn’t make it so.
we have recorded history in this country. He is being called the third president to be impeached and he admits to it himself. The difference is historical truth, Hillary.
nor were they reversed.
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