Trump Impeachment: What to Expect From the House and Senate Today

This is a joke. Removal of a President is supposed to be for high crimes and to protect our democracy, yet the prosecutor (Pelosi) sits on it for a month?

Hate to say it, but I suspect there are politics going on here similar to those in 2016. Never underestimate the power of the Democratic party establishment. In the last election, Wasserman Schultz resigned when it came to light that the DNC was helping Clinton rig the table against Sanders. The party was simply never going to permit him to be the nominee. So he's again very close to the top. And what has happened? Pelosi - who all along claimed it was critical to get this done quickly - held the articles for a month. What does this mean? McConnell says the Senate will start next Tuesday (1/21), and will run four hours a day, six days a week until it is done. It will need to take at least two or three weeks. Clinton's took five weeks. Senators have to be present in chambers in DC, and cannot even talk or text on their phones. There are now four main candidates for President. The two "shake up the whole system" progressives will now be tied to DC through at least through the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. During which time the two centrist, establishment candidates will be pretty much boots on the ground full time in IA and NH. Did Pelosi do impeachment with this as the sole goal? No. Did she delay the submission of the articles with this as the goal? I think she did. This is a very skilled woman. She knows full well holding things up would not give her any "leverage" over Senate rules. There's only one real explanation for the delay.

A President who can ignore Congressional oversight could just as easily ignore the Judicial Branch. In that respect, Chief Justice John Roberts and the rest of SCOTUS have much on the line here.

"the tactic largely failed"? That remains to be seen, but the press has consistently exaggerated Pelosi's delay. She was never going to hand over the articles of impeachment just before the holidays and force the Senate to hold a trial. That would be cruel - that's the GOP realm. The pressure on Senate Republicans to have new witnesses and documents is greater because of the delay. Pelosi is fighting for what is right - that is never wrong.

When the House approved the 2 counts of impeachment, the legal threshold for the accusation was passed. For his part, speaking at a rally of supporters, Donald said he "didn't feel like" he's been impeached. After this week, I am guessing that will change.

...And then in the interests of judicial expediency McConnell will, in lockstep with Trump dispense with the evidentiary phase of the "trial" (used here as a noun rather than an adjective) and move forward to the acquittal!

The Winds are a Changing!

I've been reading Senator Sam Ervin's account of the Senate Committee investigation of Watergate. Back then constitutional obligation, sense of duty and basic civil conduct in him and his fellow senators, from both parties, seemed the order of the day. That wasn't an impeachment of course, but let's hope the senators of today will conduct themselves in a way that will earn respect for the law, trials and the processes of justice. We'll see.

Surely the new revelations of criminality uncovered in the trove of Parnas documents is important here? Trump and his associates were surveilling a US Ambassador and potentially planning something even more sinister for Ambassador Yovanovitch--How is this not making bigger news today?

The Democrats have demonstrated order and civility, and a thoroughness of detail. They should be commended. One can only hope that the Senate Republicans will come to grips with the seriousness of the Articles of Impeachment and treat them with the same respect the House Democrats have. It just may be that enough Republican Senators will see through the party loyalty and place the country first.