Without Congress or a political process, an impeachment investigation will not happen, no matter what he uncovers, and he has uncovered NOTHING.
"...a conspiracy to defraud the United States...
Huh?????
Let's play "Devil's Advocate" for a minute...
"...You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire. You build egos the size of cathedrals. Fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse. Grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own god. Where can you go from there? As we're scrambling from one deal to the next, who's got his eye on the planet? As the air thickens, the water sours, even the bees' honey takes on the metallic taste of radioactivity. And it just keeps coming, faster and faster. There's no chance to think, to prepare—it's "buy futures", "sell futures", when there is no future. We got a runaway train, boy...
This was in 1997...
As prescient as "Network" - and halfway from then-and-there to here-and-now...
All I know is what I can discern from your lead-in pics of Mueller - the words are all beginning to run together...
Doesn't look like you all like the way this is going, at the moment...
2
Congress simply lacks the tools to effectively investigate this matter. As Mueller has shown, Trump cronies must be Indicted and flipped. Congress lacks the power to do so. However diligent they may be, they lack the required authority.
2
Mr. Mueller is needed more each day. He is the only person with the integrity to do this job that must be done and completed by him and his staff. It will help the people of the US to know the truth and it seems only Robert Mueller is capable of providing truth and helping the US maintain a democracy.
3
One thing we may have to learn in the aftermath of this unhinged administration is that POTUS has too much power. For example, he should not be able to unilaterally tear up treaties that were put in place during previous presidencies. As it is now, it seems obvious that no country or coalition would have any reason to enter into agreements with the USA.
5
The only explanation for GOP behavior is their assumption that the ends justify any means...
2
Why do our rightfully elected officials appoint non-elected partisans to destroy our liberties and freedoms? I would love put the glove on the other hand.
3
The Horowitz IG report maybe be a game changer at least in terms of public perception. It will probably clarifly and support many of the Republican assertions regarding FBI bias in the last election and possibly more evidence of real crimes will be suggested by that report than Mueller has been able to conjure up in a year. I imagine that Mueller and Sessions have already seen the report. I imagine that both sides are feeling some real heat now so I look for a furry of announcements from Mueller and Sessions. Old old saying is believe nothing of what you hear and ONLY half of what you see. With regards to Trump Mueller has not shown evidence of Trump collusion as yet. From what I see 1/2 of t zero is still zero.
1
It is clear. The only realistic path to impeachment is the election of a Democratic congress in 2018. As Macbeth said so ably, "All else is sound and fury signifying nothing." Vote!
3
The Congress is not the Sanhedrin.
2
Exactly who claimed he was a Superhero? Is this hyperbole on the part of Professor Bauer or more nonsense from the click bait school of headline writing? Far too often of late the Times has produced headers more appropriate for grocery store tabloids than a serious journal. I have to say it grows tiresome.
6
We are within a week or two of the appointment of a second Special Counsel to look into the Steele Dossier, FBI/CIA corruption, and the Clinton Foundation and its links to Russia and more importantly China. If the investigation includes matters related to the Uranium One cover-up, Robert Mueller, the FBI director overseeing the U-1 uranium transfer and subsequent cover-up, immediately becomes a person of interest and would be forced to step down from his current "collusion investigation." That would be the least of his problems, by the way, since he, along with the Clintons and Obama, would be facing charges of espionage and treason.
1
The fake story about a cover-up involving Uranium One was even exposed by Fox News. A few facts: The Russian state nuclear company, Rosatom, bought a Canadian mining company, Uranium One, in 2010. Uranium One had, and still has, uranium mining rights in the United States. It's worldwide share is about 2 percent of 2 percent. Or 0.0004 percent of world production. Some of Uranium One's U.S. uranium has gone to Canada and Europe, according to The Hill newspaper. But there's no evidence that any of it has gone to Russia. Worth your time to review:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/06/561587174/the-alternat...
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/358339-uranium-one-deal-led-...
7
Yes, and Putin would love this too!
3
MIckey, you forgot about Benghazi, Whitewater and Sasquatch! Those are far more important than any of the scandals that you mentioned.
2
America doesn't need a superhero. Instead we need our elected officials to remember their duty to protect us against all threats both foreign and domestic. The possibility that a president colluded with a foreign power to gain office must be thoroughly investigated for the health of the country. Mr Mueller is doing his part but Congress must do theirs so that the American people can move forward.
9
Expecting this Congress to take parallel responsibility with the Mueller investigation is asking for the moon. The House Intelligence Committeee has already abruptly ended it's investigation. Why? Because they want an investigation sequential to the Mueller Investigation. They want to buy time, delay the process as much as they can until Trump is out of the Office - if that's possible. The Republicans' proved to what lengths they will go to when they obstructed to let President Obama do his constitutional duty and nominate Judge Garland to the Supreme Court. Republicans always play dirty!
7
Huh? Who said he was?
1
"Robert Mueller Is Not a Superhero"
He needs to be a Superhero. Who else can stop Superidiot?
7
Is Putin right? Has Putin proven that our democratic country doesn't work? Is the voting populace so ignorant and so easily misled that they can be duped into voting for a fool? Or did the Russians manipulate a voting system already manipulated as far back as George Bush vs. Al Gore? The fact that the popular vote was for Hillary Clinton is encouraging. The Silver Lining is Putin's unmasking the weakness in our system of government. We have to repair the flaw.
11
If Donald Trump and his associates have not broken the law -- by taking aid and monies from a foreign government and offering nationals in the name of their election -- then do we even have laws anymore?
Some things in this story are incontrovertible and proven:
We know Manfort, Flynn and Trump Jr. Met with the Russians.
We know Roger Stone coordinated damaging leaks with WikiLeaks using information found by Russian Hackers.
We know that Russians illegally laundered money and faked identities to offer Trump assistance via Facebook and, possibly, the NRA.
And finally, we know that Mr. Trump has, every time these allegations have come to light, asked for people to look the other way or called for drafted statements made of outright lies.
Trump can only shoot someone dead on Fifth Avenue -- or kill our Democracy -- with no consequence if no one places charges.
If these are not crimes -- and apparently to the Republican Congress, they aren't -- then what's the point of having this nation?
10
AMEN, brother. It does not matter what Mueller finds. With the GOP/NRA Party controlling both houses of Congress, nothing will be done, under any circumstances. The only relief and some justice will be available in November. VOTE, or prepare yourself for more of the same. Or worse.
10
Agreed. I would only add that waiting until November and then voting may not be enough at this late date. Many organizations are working tirelessly to identify and register voters, get them motivated, and get them to the polls. Join one of them. Your Constitution is at stake.
10
Impeachable offences should be clearly related to the constitutional responsibilities to the country. Johnson's impeachment - although driven by some politics - clearly fell into that category as he enabled southern resistance to reconstruction and recovery of the nation. Nixon's clearly did as well, as a major abuse of power. Clinton's was a cheap political stunt, although with a legal argument for perjury. However, the Trump action of conspiring and collaborating with a hostile foreign power to undermine the election would be - by far - the most significant and impeachable offence in our history. A craven partisan Congress that ignores such a violation of the oath of office is little less than treasonous itself.
49
Clinton perjured himself. That is an unassailable fact. Perjury is a crime. Whether he should have been impeached for that is a political question.
I suspect the same will happen with Trump. He is sleazy enough to committed some crime or another - certainly he's guilty of lying, many times over. But if there was anything even remotely suggesting collusion I think it would have been leaked by now.
The authors asserts, “What the president publicly stated and tweeted takes on greater significance in light of the revelation that his campaign representatives — as we learned in the memo from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee — were told that Russians could disseminate emails stolen from Mrs. Clinton.” This is an attempt to resurrect Rep. Adam Schiff’s preposterous assertion that George Papadopoulos knew about the DNC email hack before WikiLeaks published the purloined email. On April 26, 2016, a Maltese professor told Papadopoulos that the Russians has thousands of incriminating Clinton emails, but the Clinton emails making headlines at the time were the emails stored on the private home server Hillary used while serving as secretary of state. Clinton told reporters in March of 2015 she had deleted 30,000 email messages "because they were personal and private about matters that I believed were within the scope of my personal privacy. It was also this email that Candidate Donald Trump referred to in July 2016, when he said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” Of course, the Russian did not have thousands of incriminating Clinton emails. If they had, they would have made them public. That the author considers statements about nonexistent emails grounds for impeachment indicates the weakness of the collusion conspiracy theory.
He was a candidate when he asked Russia for help in finding HRCs missing/lost emails. Don't see how that can be used against him. Besides it sounded like a joke. What if we found out his campaign paid a law firm to hire a foreign spy who then paid Russians millions of dollars for dirt on HRC?
1
First, let's not detract from Mueller's heroism as our best example of the best of American ethics, honesty, integrity; in these days of blatant corruption, Mueller is that rare flicker of an ember in our ever growing darkness and cold in this time of Trump. May this ember not be extinguished.
Second, I'm glad to see this article, pointing out the parallel, not sequential responsibilities of the Special Prosecutor and the Congress. I learned this in December 2017 when freespeechforpeople.org published their white paper, " The Legal Grounds for an Impeachment Investigation of the President."
Third, is this the first time NYT has taken note of that very important white paper?
9
We wait for Mueller because he is the only person who appears to be taking the possibility of collusion seriously. The Democrats attempt at a Congressional level to be collegial, while hoping that people will vote for them because Republicans are so bad. They wait while the Republicans in power steamroll them.
For democrats it’s always about the bogeyman they will be running against in the next election.
The Democrats gave Bush a pass on torture because they wanted to move on. Guantanamo is still open despite democrats running against it. If the Democrats had there way it is a campaign issue until they regain power.
The Republicans long ago sold everything out for Party over country. If Donald Trump sold it all to Russia. That is just current party policy.
Mueller is the only Republican with any integrity left. And unlike the democrats, the only person with any power to do anything about it.
8
Disenfranchising voters is the Republican game plan, the big money game plan, the game plan of property against people. This plan can only be defeated voter by voter. The game plan has no respect for voters; it doesn't value democracy except to the degree that it can control the path to victory. The truth about voting is that it must be a duty, not a calculation. Duty is when you vote even if it is inconvenient and you calculate that your one vote won't change the outcome.
The people can win if everyone's vote is counted.
9
Agreed. Without a secure voting process, the will of the majority of Americans is nullified. The GOP's tactical list to shut-out Dems: 1-Pass Citizen's United to gain unfettered access to dark money; 2-Flood state races to pick up seats, cut regulations; 3-Gerrymander districts to limit Dem wins (Operation RedMap); 4-Purge 1.1+M mostly African-Americans from voter rolls in GOP-controlled states ("Crosscheck", KS Sec of State Kobach); 5-Gut the Voting Rights Act, pass onerous voter ID rules targeting poor, elderly, African Americans, Hispanics; 6-Close thousands of polling sites in Dem leaning districts + reduce voting poll hrs & days; 7-Intimidate voters, cage votes; 8-Underfund Dem leaning districts-install broken, non-functioning, fewer machines; 9-Use insecure vote machines that can be hacked to flip & lose votes; 10-Shunt voters to provisional ballots (no proof votes will be counted) and to the wrong places to vote; 11-Remove voters to "inactive lists" (AL, OH); 12-Legalize methods to prevent votes from being tracked; 13-Fail to secure votes; 14-Keep counting methods secret; 15-Mount expensive law suits to contest recounts, results in court; 16-Suppress news of Russian influence, fail to prioritize, fund a forensic investigation; 17-Rely on a non-transparent electronic voting system run by private companies proven to be hackable since 2000 election; 18-Fail to fund a long overdue upgrade to U.S. voting system security; 19-Fail to secure our system against Russian hacking.
2
There was an excellent and concise column in The New York Times when the first Russian bubble burst, asking Americans not to interfere with the intervention of Mr. Robert Mueller, and not to impede his efforts to discover the truth. Perhaps it is time to remember the Fable of The Tortoise and The Hare.
Mr. Mueller may appear to be plodding along, when he is being meticulous and taking these allegations of Russian interference in our Voting Process seriously, diligently and as an act of good faith. He is a true Patriot and American, and it is a privilege for this citizen to offer him full support.
16
Wish we could fast forward our calendars to November like we did our clocks last week and end this nightmare of our collective national anxiety. We can start a new national time zone and call it Democracy Savings Time.
9
Emoluments violations and obstruction of justice aren't even mentioned here as worthy of investigation by Congress. Collusion was the only thing the GOP predictably threw out. The case for impeachment now remains strong and clear, but increasingly complicated analysis continues to obscure it.
6
Even if Mueller has the proof to convict the President, it may require impeachment to prosecute. Impeaching and forced removal from office has never occurred. It might disrupt the government for years and produce such bitterness and resentments to disrupt government for years after. In addition, Republicans could end up being viewed as so partisan as to be seen as unpatriotic, much as were Federalists after the war of 1812 because of their intense behaviors in favor of Great Britain.
3
They are already viewed a unpatriotic and partisan. You are already late in your evaluation.
2
The disruption of government and producing bitterness and resentments for years to come has already occurred. This can only be stopped now by conviction and impeachment of this President who has tried to or trying to obstruct justice in every way. And Republicans could end up looking highly partisan and unpatriotic? They already are and patriotism is out the window.
5
Weak analysis, and in some respects chilling. The author points out the political nature of the impeachment process, but doesn't like the fact that the House Intelligence Committee, acting in accordance with its political judgment, has decided to end the investigation. He regards that as a dereliction of duty, but it is fully consistent with the principle he purports to advance. Meanwhile, his assessment of the "legal" landscape -- suggesting that Mr. Trump's "appeal to the Russian government to locate and publish the emails of Hillary Clinton or his repeated references to the fact of Russian electoral intervention as a 'hoax'" could "constitute affirmative acts in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy" -- is most notable for a point he doesn't make, which is that our prosecutors have so many vague and ill-defined offenses available for their use (e.g., "conspiracy to defraud the United States"), that avoiding prosecutorial abuse for political purposes strikes me as the greater danger here. It opens the door to something the President would call "a witch hunt," and if such statements were deemed acts in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy (which the author seems to contemplate with equanimity), I suspect a large segment of the American population would agree with him.
1
Russian Republicans have been showing their true colors for decades, culminating in their current Matryoshka-Doll-In-Chief.
Red state Republicans share a common favorite political color with Russia's Red Square.
The old red flag of the authoritarian Soviet Union, with its gold-colored hammer and sickle, was predicated on corrupt power, much as today's Russian-Republican red state tyranny is predicated on massive voter suppression, the gerrymander on steroids, the corrupt Electoral College, Senate red state obstructionism, Supreme Court hijackings, and Grand Old Propaganda state-managed Fake News.
Today's Russian flag is red, white and blue, and Russian-Republicans proudly embrace that oligarchic flag behind the backs of tens of millions of Americans they've duped into thinking that they give a damn about America.
Party First: Country Last treason, sedition and unAmericanism is the Republican Party platform.
When you vote Republican, your vote also gets counted in Russia,
Heckuva' job, Russian-Republican voters.
Don't forget to raise the Russian flag on your flagpoles, nincompoops.
25
We, the people are the government and we cannot rely on Mueller alone to determine whether or not justice prevails. Strong Republican forces are in play to undermine Mueller and weaken him. District by district, in November, we must work to remove the self-serving congressional members and Senators who turn their backs on truth and the rule of law. Our votes are all that matters now.
76
The Constitutional Convention created our government’s controlling law prior to the formal creation of political parties from already existing factions that pitted Federal power against those who prefered to preserve the sovereignity of the several states.
Today we have a party system where congress persons and senators often rank their allegiance to their seat, their party, their donors,and their constituents above their devotion to the constitution and the general welfare.
Whether required to investigate and eliminate malfesiance and corruption in the congress itself or within the administration, congress and its committees are forced to “judge their own party’s case” when the perpetrators are members of the majority party. If Mr. Sessios was required to recruse himself perhaps the Congress, both Democrats and Republicans , should be held to the same standard.
It is time to admit that party affiliation makes impeachment of a president by his own party only possible when the facts of case are irrefutable. It is time for a prosecutor independent of both parties to become a permanent fixture of oversight of the two elected branches of the federal government. Agency Inspectors General might provide us a model for an indepedent investigation of impeachable offenses.
9
The redrafting of the Independent Counsel statue into a Special Counsel appears deeply flawed. It was brought about by concerns over the "wide-ranging" activities of Ken Starr(notwithstanding the very real Clinton offenses he uncovered).
But clearly a billionaire president who refuses to release his taxes, fully divest from his businesses, appoints his children (with their businesses) to senior level posts--was not envisaged. Given such challenges, Robert Mueller is a superhero. Despite significant constraints and a president who openly politicizes the DOJ, he is pursuing his charge with integrity and a strict adherence to the rule of law.
Whatever the outcome, Congress needs to go back to the drawing board in order to refine a process for investigating a sitting president. It is deeply troubling that Mueller's findings may not be released in a publically accessible report.
It is all too apparent that the DOJ is not an independent arm of government (Rod Rosenstein's honorable service notwithstanding). A mechanism such as a permanent Office of Inspector General that provides nonpartisan publically accessible accountability/oversight of a president needs to be established in order to restore public confidence in the notion that we are a people governed by the rule of law.
15
The one question that everyone is dancing around is this. Did Russian interference actually change the outcome of the election? How many of the 150 million Americans who saw the anti-Hillary propaganda on facebook (and that is not even the totality of their efforts) were influenced enough to vote for Trump? Trump can claim, without evidence, that Russian interference did not influence the election, but if so, why did the Russians bother? Do they like to waste money on futile projects? If negative ads don't influence elections, then why does every candidate spend millions on them? Why did Trump Jr. say he loved it when the Russians promised him dirt on Hillary? The effectiveness of negative ads is something on which agreement is universal. But does this prove that without Russia Hillary would be president? No, but it leaves us with this problem. Considering the narrow margins in a few key states cleverly targeted by Russia, no American can be sure that our President, chosen by a minority of us, would be in the White House without Russia's act of war. Having the legitimacy of the U.S. president remain on open question is simply not tolerable. The election became official when Congress certified the outcome. It must decertify it, recall President Obama temporarily, and call for a new election. Trump could still win, but we must be sure that the American people, not the Russian, choose our President.
8
I am of the opinion that merely planning to interfere is sufficient proof of illegal activity and that damages do not need to be proven. If you plan a terrorist attack but it is not carried out or fails you still could be indicted for conspiracy. Merely conspiring to defraud or commit treason is itself a serious offense even if the plan is not carried out. No doubt harder to prove but still serious.
2
Computer experts before and after the 2016 election sounded the alarm that it would be fairly easy to target key districts and flip votes--due to the known insecurities of many of the voting systems. Exit polls in many swing states prior to "post-election-weighting" showed Clinton with a sizable lead. She only lost the E.C. by 77K+ votes. So what happened? When our election system can be breached by the Russians and voting machines and counting methods are insecure--this needs a lot more investigation.
The Insecurity of America's Old and Underfunded Voting Systems”
http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2017/07/20/538312289/fresh-air-for...
How Hackers Broke Into U.S. Voting Machines in Less Than ...
http://fortune.com/2017/07/31/defcon-hackers-us-voting-machines
How Much Faith Do You Have in the Vote Counting Process? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY6FCsVWGlM
1
All this and not a shred of evidence there was any collusion. There was widespread evidence and reporting of Russian meddling back in 2015 way before the primaries but Obama did nothing. Then there was DNC funded oppo research that was fed into the FBI by self described partisans. If Gates, Papadapolous or Flynn had been doing any colluding, they would have had to plead guilty to that and describe it in detail to Mueller. So if they weren't the colluders, then who was? If Mueller is now off investigating potential illegal influence from the UAE, then seems like he's not investigating Russia links anymore.
3
Bob Mueller will tell us whether there has been collusion or not.
3
You forgot to follow the money, Mr. Phleger.
2
I don't know, and neither does anyone other than Robert Mueller, if he has found a shred of evidence that there was collusion.
Do you recall the comment Mr. Trump made after his face-to-face meeting of Putin? Putin said Russia didn't interfere in the elections, "and I believe him." Honestly, I don't think even Mr. Trump is that stupid. There is most assuredly something that will emerge when Robert Mueller completes his work.
1
Sorry but it is time for the media to realize that muller is no longer in demand, and that he has become another "rerun" of something gone away. He had his time, his moment, but the glory he seeks is not there.
1
Me Too - Read your script more closely - Who is Muller?
2
This alert just sent out by The NYT:
Headline: The special counsel has subpoenaed Trump Organization records, some related to Russia, bringing the inquiry closer to the president
2
America does not need Robert Mueller to be a superhero. Nor does America need Congress nor the Courts to be superheroes. And the media need not be superheroes.
Every branch of our divided limited power constitutional republic united states constitutes the elected and selected hired help of the ultimate American sovereign power we the people. All that we can demand and expect is that they all do the right thing in a competent credible timely manner. Or they will be replaced with people who can.
21
Thank you, Blackmamba.
1
The US government currently seems to clearly be a kakistocracy(government by the worst persons). No matter how fancy an argument someone makes it doesn’t hide the fact that the US is having a governmental catastrophe.
I think Robert Muller is going after the truth. No matter how many roadblocks and diversions are put in the way the truth does not change. I have hope Mueller will help save our country.
9
It's not Muller -- it's Mueller I join you in hoping that Mueller will help save our country. Would love to see Trumpy impeached and then placed on the other side of the border wall that he wants - and placed into permanent exile. Playing golf on sand would be good exercise for him. Hope he drinks the water down there.
1
Could any supporter of Trump please please please explain to me why Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law and campaign manager met in Trump Tower with a Russian operative, a Russian hacker and a Russian money launderer and exactly why such an action is NOT treasonous as Steve Bannon has said?
64
Because speaking to Russians alone doesn't amount to treason?
Congress will throw us, clutching copies of the Constitution, under the bus.
6
Not much at stake in November--only the fate of the United States as a functioning democracy. It will all come down to Democrats coming out and voting (and anyone who votes 3rd party should be tarred and feathered)!
www.newyorkgritty.net
11
"It is up to Congress — evidently not this one, maybe the next — to show that it can rise to the occasion." Well, Mueller may not be a superhero. But right now, given the current craven traitorous congress, he is all we have. God speed Mueller.
10
One of the major tools of Republican actions...prejudgments. It's an authoritarian thing.
3
Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the republic. He has control of America's nuclear launch codes. He can launch a nuclear attack, killing many millions of people, as easily as he can send out a Twitter message. Many times over, he has proven he is utterly unworthy to assume the responsibilities that go with being Commander in Chief. Psychiatrists have warned us that he is a malignant narcissist, and it is clear from his temper tantrums, his petulant rages, that he is using his power of office in an utterly irresponsible way. There are legal issues here, which Muller might decide, but ultimately Trump's fitness for command is a moral and political issue. That is up to Congress to decide, and, with the closing of the House investigation, it has clearly abdicated its Constitutional responsibility. I fear for the future of the republic, and if it fails it will be far from Trump's fault alone.
8
http://www.lawfareblog.com/document-house-intelligence-committee-minorit...
Nunes may have closed the Republican-only report, but check this link for the real deal, as It should have been done.
End Citizens United and the Electoral College. To prevent a minority of voters from inflicting gangsters on all of us, we must all vote in every election.
18
An excellent and timely article. We are traveling down a long and twisted road. We must be patient as the process unfolds. We can speed it along by going to the voting booth in November and flipping the House and the Senate. Then, and only then, can the will of the people be expressed. Take your time Mr. Mueller - cross the T's and dot the i's. Our young people are giving us a long delayed civics lesson that too many voters have failed to remember. Time is not of the essence here - building an unassailable case is the objective.
18
We can debate all these points at infinitum and maybe "things" will work out or maybe , they won't.
Some of us hope that Congress will "change hands" in 2018.
Several things, essential in the long run, need to be done between 2018 and 2020. How to implement, I do not know.
- Get "money" completely out of politics
- Revisit the "electoral college" issue and determine its necessity
- Proportional representation in State Legislatures instead of "gerrymandering" bias
- Each able citizen must vote
- Forbid concentration of power in any shape or form (anti-trust laws, political cliques)
- Tax system that keep the "rich" class close by and the poor close by.
- Health care for all
10
Legend has it that, as Benjamin Franklin exited Independence Hall following the conclusion of the constitutional convention, a woman asked what the delegates had created. "A republic, if you can keep it," he supposedly replied. The message conveyed by this perhaps apocryphal tale focuses on our responsibility to make the system work. No institutions created on parchment can prevent tyranny.
Constitutions and laws play an important role in a free society, because they provide the tools citizens can use to construct a democratic government. But the institutions don't work without human intervention. The framers created a process for holding the president accountable for his actions. The current Republican majority in Congress, however, has displayed no interest in doing their duty in this area.
We, not the framers, bear the responsibility if we lose our republic.
34
Nothing there, Never was.
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/03/14/intel-committee-rejects-basic-unde...
And for those "liberals" who think Muller is a hero, but Haspel a villain, such short memories.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/conflicts-of-interest-and-ethics-ro...
Nothing there? I guess those guilty pleas and ongoing investigations of Trump aides never happened, then.
13
The Trump debacle is exposing the flaws in our constituted government - no enforcement of the structural checks and balances. Impeachment is supposed to be a nuclear button check on the power of the Presidency - but clearly has no value if the party running Congress puts politics ahead of duty. Looking back, the only reason Nixon was impeached is that the Democrats controlled Congress, even then the GOP was whitewashing his crimes, like now.
Congress simply refused to hold hearings on Merrick, with no consequence, and we're stuck with a true horror, Neil Gorsuch. Clearly the founding mothers and fathers did not envision a day when people would not do their job. There is no mechanism to fire Congresspersons who do not show up to work, who refuse to hold Supreme Court hearings.
WIth great foresight, our founders set up an Electoral College to counter the sway of a demagogue, to counter foreign interference. We had both of those this past election - but the Electoral College did not do their job, with no consequence. They are sheep not sheepherders guarding our democracy.
When all is said and done it is time for a new Constitutional Congress to repair the evident flaws in our system, time for new amendments. Which cannot pass in this divided country. Our system is frayed and tattered and needs repair. The generation in power does not seem up to the task, but our young folks are taking action. We are not leaving them a strong democracy but maybe they can fix it.
42
The Founding Fathers did indeed expect the Electors to exercise their judgment, but that is not how the Constitution has evolved. By custom and to some extent statutory law, Electors are expected merely to reflect the majority vote in their district. An Elector could in theory run on the promise that he or she would exercise his or her independent judgment. In 2016 none did. To urge Electors to betray their constituents is a subversion of our Constitution as it actually exists.
I voted for Clinton, but the attempt to subvert our Constitution is one of the things that has soured me on the Democratic party.
Then why bother with the Electoral College? So much has changed in this world since 1787: universal suffrage, the expanse of the nation, communication capabilities, etc. The concept that there would be wise men electors that could in good and fair conscience override a majority of the eligible men voting no longer holds.
A Constitutional Convention is appealing but would expose the political tensions and possibly lead to a worse outcome. What about the Second Amendment only meaning what is fully written? We simply can't have 40 wise and educated men decide our course now.
4
I voted for Clinton also. Did not and do not consider her to be "Evil". Knew that Trump was not qualified. Knew his background. Amazed that the Republican Party could not come up with a viable candidate. Then considered the fateful path that Republicans had been led down by Mitch McConnell and crew. Sad.
2
So...long story short, the founders' intention for impeachment have been undone by the current process and Mueller's work -- whatever it finds -- is no substitute for the responsibility that weighs so heavily on a craven and corrupt gaggle of sycophants.
And a happy good morning to you too!
24
The Trump GOP Congress won’t impeach Trump. Mueller knows that. He also knows a Democratic Congress could impeach him. Mueller will, one hope, release his findings of Trump’s likely conspiracy with Russia and his open corruption right before the November election to ensure the con man’s downfall.
53
And that is precisely why we need a Blue tidal wave crossing this country like what enveloped Western Pennsylvania. What this country is in dire need of, besides a good cigar (old joke), is a Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress. Without that, the Republican chairmen will shut down as they already have any attempt to rein in Trump's obstruction of justice and abuse of power. It is the democratic way, the way we do it in this republic of ours. We who oppose Trump and Republican leadership in Congress must present to the electorate competent capable candidates who speak to the all the folks who have been disenfranchised by this Republican Trifecta. Until we can break the stranglehold Republicans have on this nation, we will keep floundering. Let US begin this November and every November to follow until it is done.
DD
Manhattan
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The fundamental truth is, in the U.S.A., with a complicit and subservient Congress, the President is immune to impeachment.
The GOP will keep pushing until ruination. Absolute power leading to absolute corruption of everything.
The,"blessed," Constitution is ridiculously flawed and exploited and desperately needs to be changed and updated.
Money in politics.
Gun ownership.
The electoral system.
A joke to the rest of the civilized world.
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Spot on. Not only is the Constitution "ridiculously flawed", it is ridiculously interpreted. For example, a simple amendment intended to provide for an armed militia gets interpreted to include everybody, militia or not.
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Hopefully more information will also be turned over to state prosecutors so Trump will not be able to pardon his criminally corrupt cronies.
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Our political system is degrading and it’s a direct result of the character of the people in Congress and the moneyed interests that own their vote. If honest people controlled the House and Senate this crazy. Incompetent person in the White House would be long gone, or would have been exposed as a fraud prior to the election. The republicans, by and large, are there in government for their own personal enrichment first and upholding the constitution a very distant second.
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Hey, wasn't that Trump's campaign message?
I wonder why he's not doing anything about it now that he's president.
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This piece reminds me that our precious constitution, our precious country, depend on elected officials, public servants, and citizens in general to act ethically---- attempting to put the needs of the country above all others. Apparently our elected officials need a course in the meaning of citizenship in a democracy. Without ethics it cannot function.
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We seem to be witnessing a slow transition from what was once a sort of bloodlust for impeachment to an acknowledgement that it was a naive fantasy. The best that the defenders of American ideals can hope for now is to constrain the damage to four years and to meanwhile address the flaws in our society that made his rise possible to begin with.
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller, III, and his staffs have been the hope of the silent majority of Americans. With the support of the mainstream press--a courageous resistance against ignorance, provincialism, indecency and dictatorship--Mueller and his team may successfully demonstrate to the deeply divided USA and history that constitutional democracy is still the best foundation.
The suit initiated by Clifford against "Trump et al" may also help to illustrate the dark side of the coin.
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The real issue is how do you deal with a political party that refuses to meet its constitutional obligation to rein in a law breaking President because it is politically inconvenient? The willful abdication of this responsibility is by far the Republicans greatest challenge to our system as the system never really envisioned a case where a political party en mass would be not live up to the basic expectation of faithfully discharging its duties.
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The effort to overturn an election whose outcome you disagree with is far more dangerous to our democracy than any propaganda efforts by foreign powers. Voters in 2016 had a choice between two very flawed candidates, and absent a real crime, like burglarry, that can be clearly shown, Muellar should defer to the democratic process. Voters should not be disenfranchised, the democratic process should be the vehicle to address disappointment in the outcome.
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It's true that Mueller's charge is to uncover the facts about whether or not Russia intervened in our elections. We know the answer to that, which is that they did. The secondary goal for Mueller is to follow the evidence he uncovers wherever it might lead in terms of other criminal activities. We do no know about these threads of investigation yet.
But the collusion / conspiracy investigation was never meant to result in actual legal charges against the President or anyone else. The most reasonable outcome for this would be to produce results which would be fed into Congress for an impeachment process to be held against Trump. And, as the author points out, Congress is of no mind to participate in that.
But there is another result for Mueller in this, which is not part of his investigative charge per se, but which is paramount in the minds of most Americans. And that is to get Trump removed from office, by any means necessary. The most likely way to do this would not be via the political process of impeachment, but by direct indictment of Trump and the rest of his cabal. And it won't be Mueller who will do that. It will be Eric Schneiderman, the NY Attorney General, who will indict Trump for money laundering, which will come out of Mueller's second path of investigation. Congress does not need to be part of this. And Mueller has already teamed up with Schneiderman to that end, which also protects the investigations in case Mueller is fired or marginalized.
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It is up to all of us, if the political system fails, to address the causes of this failure. The youth organizing, protesting and demanding comprehensive gun legislation are showing us what can be done. What are the rest of us doing? Writing articles, commenting on them and watching the news. We get the Congress and the President we deserve. We got both.
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This is a dose of reality - it IS crazy - childish, escapist - to act as if Mueller is Superman who will arrive in the nick of time to save us from the depredations of Trump and Co. It is also missing the point to think that proving "collusion with the Russians" - beyond a reasonable doubt - is the entire point of his investigation ( I struggle with how there can possibly be three valid investigations going on simultaneously without seriously confusing the issues, but that's a different sticking point).
Our government does not rest on the skills and integrity of a single person; it should rest on the legal framework in place.
This is not a battle between Trump and Mueller - that accepts Trump's understanding of his role. This is about whether the other arms of government will take the responsibility accorded in the Constitution.
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The article's premise -- and conclusion -- is contained in its last sentence: It looks like getting rid of this travesty of a president will have to await a Democratic majority in the House. God help the nation until then.
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The House "investigation" was not bipartisan. It was conducted solely to try to exonerate the president. If the administration shuts the investigation down, we will just open it up again when we control Congress in January 2019.
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Holding my fingers crossed.
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