Paper #2

Yes Irene the president has been impeached by the House of Representatives….instead of whining about the outcome of the House vote why not look forward to the trial in the US Senate, where the president will most likely be acquitted (acquittal does not mean not guilty).

The Impeachment process in the House is done….the Senate now awaits the articles so they can set up a date for them trial to begin.

So what now has been asked…..

– The Democratic-controlled House voted almost entirely along party lines Wednesday night to make Donald Trump the first Republican president in US history to be impeached—and analysts don’t expect things to get any less partisan in the weeks to come. Trump will go on trial in the Senate next year, but the timing is now unclear: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after Wednesday’s vote that Democrats are considering holding off on sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate because they are concerned that the trial will not be a fair one. More:

• The next steps. Before the process can move to the Senate, the House needs to appoint impeachment managers to present the case. Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff and Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler are seen as likely candidates. Rep. Justin Amash, an independent who left the Republican Party and voted for impeachment, may also be included to “confer some bipartisan credibility on the Democrats’ case,” the Guardian reports.
• Acquittal expected. With Republicans holding 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate and a two-thirds supermajority required to remove Trump from office, an acquittal is widely expected—a conviction would require 20 Republican senators to switch sides. But the process is likely to “further aggravate the political and cultural fault lines in the country” that Trump’s presidency “has brought into dramatic relief,” the New York Times reports.
• Support for a delay. Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer says he has taken the idea of a delay to every member of House leadership and there has been a lot of interest, including from Pelosi, Politico reports. “As long as we have the articles of impeachment under our control, we have an opportunity to prevent a travesty,” he says.
• Trial negotiations. In a look at how a Senate trial would work, the Washington Post notes that a majority of senators will have to agree on rules for a trial, which are not set out in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants a speedy trial with no witnesses called, though he may reach a compromise with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to avoid a public battle. After rules are agreed upon and a trial begins, senators, including those currently on the campaign trail, will work six days a week.
• Trump’s legacy. Trump has downplayed the importance of impeachment, arguing that his opponents are the ones who look bad, but historians say the stain on his legacy will be permanent, the AP reports. “It’ll be impossible to look back at this presidency and not discuss impeachment. It is permanently tied to his record,” says Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer. “Ukraine will be his Watergate. Ukraine will be his Lewinsky.” Rice University presidential historian Douglas Brinkley agrees that impeachment is a “medallion of shame,” but notes that the impeachment will “look smaller” if Trump wins the election this year and becomes the first impeached president to be re-elected.

The talking point after the vote was that the House should withhold the articles from the Senate until the Spring of 2020…..considering the worthlessness of Mitch then I agree with this idea….even some conservs are feeling this would be a good idea as well and worth considering…..

It is beginning to dawn on Democrats that the moment they send articles of impeachment for Donald Trump to the Senate, they will have lost all of their leverage.

So they shouldn’t do it.

At least not yet, especially in light of the recent comments by Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham.

McConnell has said that he intends to work in “total coordination” with the White House and that “I’m going to take my cues from the president’s lawyers.” He adds: “There’s no chance the president will be removed from office.”

Graham is, if you can believe it, even less subtle. “I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind,” he said over the weekend at Doha Forum in Qatar. “I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here . . . I will do everything I can to make it die quickly.”

Impeach and Withhold

I think that the Dems will fair better if they delay and give them time to make the rounds and make their case for the trial…it will give them time to frame the conversation and not let the president and his sycophants do it for them.

Then there is the chance that a debate about censure will come out of the flames of the impeachment……

Censure?

And the Old Professor will explain that in the next in the series here on IST.

The next post in this series will be coming in January 2020….when the Congress returns to DC to go back to work(?)……so the trial will get lots of lip service…..just something the media demands that is why they ask the same questions over and over and expect a different answer……now that is sanity!

Two weeks of total bullsh*t

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