We Will Remember in November

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Although the votes haven’t been taken yet, it’s nearly certain witnesses will be blocked and Trump will not be removed from office. No surprise.

David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times writes that impeachment could cost Trump dearly.

Johnson’s acquittal in May 1868 turned quickly to ashes: He ended his tenure less than 11 months later, reviled and rejected by much of the country. Clinton had a happier, but still mixed, fate: He remained personally popular, but the ethical cloud that remained over him after the Feb. 12, 1999, acquittal vote helped cause the defeat of Vice President Al Gore, who lost one of the closest presidential elections in history less than two years later.

And although he resigned before he was impeached, the stigma attached to Richard Nixon also. He is remembered mostly for being a crook.

Although polls are close on whether Trump should be removed from office, a substantial majority of voters think the Senate should have called witnesses. A Quinnipiac poll from this week:

On week two of the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, registered voters say 75 – 20 percent that witnesses should be allowed to testify in the impeachment trial, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN- uh-pea-ack) University national poll released today. Support for witness testimony includes 49 percent of Republicans, 95 percent of Democrats, and 75 percent of independents.

The 75 percent of independents is encouraging.

Many are calling for the Dems to keep investigating and calling for Trump to be held to account. See:

Josh Marshall, Bring Down the Hammer

Paul Waldman, What Democrats must do when impeachment is over

Martin Longman, If Trump is Acquitted, the House Democrats Should Press Ahead

And, I believe the congressional Democrats will press ahead. Even today there have been more damning revelations. A new leak from Bolton’s book says that Trump’s defense lawyer Pat Cipollone was present in the Oval Office when Trump pressed Bolton to apply pressure on Ukranians to extract damaging information on Democrats. He was part of the scheme, in other words.

And who knows what fresh hells await us? If Trump follows his pattern, he’ll do something even worse next week.

7 thoughts on “We Will Remember in November”

  1. What Democrats will boycott the SOTU? I think Trump in office deserves the same respect he showed President Obama.

  2. Two bad things today:

    – Trump's acquittal, all but accomplished. Cowardly Lamar Alexander said conviction would pour gasoline on the culture wars. I suspect he's more afraid of having his house torched by angry Trump supporters were he to vote for witnesses / for conviction. 

    – Brexit

    I view taking the White House in 2020 as a long shot given the lack of a break out candidate. The two geriatric candidates, the front-runners, Biden and Sanders don't inspire. They remind me of the late USSR which continually put forward these crusty old fossils to lead the dying workers utopia. It will  also be something of a bloodbath to get the two factions of Democrats to unite.

    I am however burning to take the US Senate, something we can all agree upon. The Rs hold a thin majority, only a few seats. As Frank Rich put it, Mike Bloomberg's bottomless checkbook should be able to finance no end of commercials based on the sham trial we just went through.

    Wished a coworker farewell yesterday – he and his family are moving to Japan, to flee what's been happening to the USA. First individual I personally know who is voting with his feet.

  3. This I hear is from Taylor Swift inspired buy the last midterms.

    The track — featuring lyrics such as “You did all that you could do / The game was rigged, the ref got tricked / The wrong ones think they’re right / We were outnumbered, this time” — is a political anthem aimed specifically at, you guessed it, America’s youth.\

    YOU GO GIRL  

  4. I seem to be retreating into fantasy. I find myself thinking that maybe the repugs voted  not to hear any witnesses because they've heard enough evidence to establish Trump's guilt and have decided to go right to voting for conviction. There's no sense in dragging out the process to get rid of Trump. At least my fantasy supports my previous fantasy of the repugs leading Trump to his presidential demise by getting rid of him in one fell swoop. They'll lead him to the political gallows with his eyes wide open and thinking  he pulled off another caper.

     Adios, out the door, and no recourse. It was fun while it lasted, amigo, but there is no room for reprobates in the new morally reconstituted Republican party!

    * * Brother Mike Pence will be delivering an invocation with a call unto repentance and restoration following his swearing in.* *

  5. What galls is the riscible idea that 80 year old senators vote a certain way in order to protect their future prospects. When you are past a certain age, you have no future. 

    I hear that some senators were offended at the language of the House managers. Well, to quote Trump supporters, fuck your feelings.

    I enjoyed the Waldman link and the Conway link. It is time to flip the senate like a cheap fixer upper. Bloomberg why don't you spend a little to help that happen?

    We need to persist. 

  6. Cutting off the trial was expected. The immediately preceding bombshells from Bolton and Parnas weren't. They made the vote look like a panicked coverup. We're hearing a lot of bad excuses from Republican senators, but probably the biggest reason they toed the line was the prospect of being left out in the cold:

    "Political groups aligned with Sen. Mitch McConnell are amassing a $190 million war chest as the Senate majority leader and allies warn Republican donors, amid an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, that a GOP Senate is the only reliable defense against Democrats sweeping in 2020."

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/mitch-mcconnell-allies-gird-to-defend-senate-majority-amid-impeachment-uncertainty

     

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