By Michael Goodwin
Apparently believing his first week in the White House has been flawless and the public will be extra patient with him, Joe Biden did a very foolish thing. He decided to ride the tiger of impeachment.
“I think it has to happen,” the president said in a brief TV interview about his party’s bid to try Donald Trump. Biden conceded a Senate trial would slow confirmation of his nominees and passage of legislation tied to pandemic relief, but insisted there would be “a worse effect if it didn’t happen.”
He doesn’t say what could be worse, but let’s take a guess: Democrats obsessed with getting revenge on Trump would get furious at Biden. That’s the only possible answer because only Democrats would revolt if Trump were not put in the dock.
Chalk it up to another example of Biden having trouble with the transition from partisan candidate to president. You might remember his promise to work for all Americans, no matter how they voted, but he’s already forgotten it. His dozens of executive orders and pronouncements show he’s working only for left-wing Dems.
When it comes to impeachment, he’s also late to the game. Biden’s first clear support for Nancy Pelosi’s Folly comes just as the winds are shifting in Trump’s favor and the chance of conviction is rapidly approaching zero.
The change reflects the fact that the Dems’ theater of the absurd is becoming more messy and less logical with each passing day. Tempers over the Jan.6 Capitol riot are cooling and reality is setting in about the pitfalls of a trial and the need to get on with governing during the twin public-health and economic crises.
Start with the concept of the trial itself. A CNN caption on a photo of House managers walking the single article to the Senate said it would start “only the fourth impeachment trial of a president in US history.”
Except Trump is no longer president. An honest caption would have noted this would be the first impeachment trial of a former president — and thus a private citizen — by the Senate. Doesn’t quite have the same zing, but happens to be true.
The justification for a trial is even shakier with the decision by Chief Justice John Roberts to be a no-show. Roberts has bailed out, reportedly refusing to preside because Trump is no longer president.
The Constitution says the court’s chief justice “shall preside” when the president is the accused, but Roberts either decided he doesn’t have to, or shouldn’t, because Trump is out of office.
As a result, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy will preside, making the Democrat both juror and judge. How’s that for fairness?
These events shoot a big hole in the Dems’ rationale, and Sen. Rand Paul created an even bigger one Tuesday. The Kentucky Republican gave a powerful speech in which he called the process a “sham” and, by asserting the trial would be unconstitutional, forced each senator to vote yes or no on the question. Only five Republicans voted “yes” with all 50 Democrats, meaning the 45 other GOP senators view the trial as unconstitutional. It is close to a given that they would also vote to acquit Trump, meaning there will be nowhere near the 67 votes needed for conviction.
@Greg: You simply don’t get it, do you? It’s all a matter of relatives. Obama and his co-scum have all, by YOUR standards, incited violence if you actually believe Trump, by telling supporters to “peacefully support our brave representatives” incited anything more than a nod of approval. What’s more, it is LEFTISTS who need nothing more than a vague suggestion to go riot, loot and burn and call it “justice”, not any conservatives. We conservatives believe in law and order and we do NOT accept either the wanton violence the left loves to commit, the Democrats condoning and denying it or Democrats constantly blaming Republicans for everything they themselves are guilty of.
The reason for your mockumentary about Trump is propaganda. Trump has been a tremendous success and it takes LIES to try to suppress that knowledge. Democrats are the party of fascism, totalitarianism and the police state. They certainly act the part.
@Greg:
That’s what we reasonable people have been saying about clowns like you, for four years.
No evidence of all these Trump things you keep squawking about.
Obama’s records were sealed, by the way, to prevent any..uh..unfortunate truths from coming out. That’s not a clean record. That’s an intentionally hidden record. Very different things.
But the good news is Obama is just an ex-president, and our un-elected dictator Biden’s vast list of corrupt deals, admitting to Quid Pro Quo on video, and all but admitting he’s just a vessel to install a woman…any woman..into the oval office has the majority of Americans ready to oust these impostures and restore our democracy.
Reasonable.
@Nathan Blue: The other good news is that if Republicans ever get the opportunity, they can impeach Obama. Then Biden. Then Clinton. Hell, if we want to we can impeach Carter. Johnson. Roosevelt. They don’t even have to have done anything! Just make it up and GO!
Another despondent Capitol Police Officer has taken his own life, we learned today.
We’ve now got a Qanon nutcase from Georgia who wants to carry a firearm onto the floor of the House of Representatives, just given a committee position by the GOP. She should have been censured. And the House Minority Leader was off to Florida for a special audience with the bastard who incited a deadly riot only three weeks ago. They’re trying to cook up a scheme for regaining control of the House.
There’s what comes of your “success”. Your party has gone to hell in a handbag.
The instant the Constitutionally authorized judge of an impeachment trial begged off (because the trial was unconstitutional once the target had left office) only to be replaced by a partisan hack, impeachment was dead.
@Greg:
Yours went to hell March 4, 1913.
Impeachment No. 2 is already a done deal. Whether that results in a conviction or an acquittal is still an open issue.
Mitch McConnell is no longer in a position to block the calling of witnesses or the presentation of evidence, which significantly changes what might happen. Senate republicans could find themselves in a very awkward position, where they could be forced to individually vote to either acquit or convict after the public has just been reminded in grim detail of what they’re blowing off.
They also have an individual third option, which might simultaneously be both their individual easy way out and the single most serious threat to Trump: not showing up for the final vote, and then claiming they’ve absented themselves as a protest against the entire “unconstitutional” procedure. The reason that’s the most serious threat to Trump has to to with the constitutional trial process itself. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass—of the number of Senators present when the vote is taken. This would make it possible for them to remove any possibility of Trump ever holding office again while seeming to object to the very thing that they’re allowing to happen.
This article appeared in connection with Trump’s Impeachment No. 1 back in October 2019, but explains the scenario very clearly as it could apply to Impeachment No. 2: The Impeachment Loophole No One’s Talking About
@Greg:
Judas Priest, you’re a freaking idiot. And to make it even worse, you don’t even know why.
@retire05, #58:
Nor do you know why, I’m guessing. You’re just mooing at the moon. Why don’t you go ahead and jump over it?
@Greg:
That’s the second time you’ve called me a cow.
Perhaps you should be banned from FA for gender bias.
Hey, I could have referred to barking. In the face of your continuous gratuitous personal insults, I believe I’ve shown a commendable degree of self restraint. I should get a certificate and gold star.
But seriously, what was the flaw in my speculation? 45 republican senators just voted that the impeachment process is unconstitutional. It’s also well known that many would like to see Trump politically neutralized, provided they take no blame back home for making it happen. They don’t like the populace sword he dangles over their heads.
@Greg:
Despondent they were exploited by Democrats to accommodate their terrorists leading the riot into the Capital. Democrats never care about the collateral damage of their seditious agenda. Perhaps this was the cop that killed Ashli Babbitt.
Why shouldn’t Congresspeople carry their self defense? Pelosi will call off the defense of the Capital if she feels she can exploit the ensuing violence. Republicans especially should carry, since they are targeted and they protect the 2nd Amendment. Those who read the NYT are more dangerous than any Qanon reader. NYT, WaPo, CNN, MSNBC and the rest of the Democrat propaganda machine spread far more destructive conspiracies than Qanon could even dream of.
You’ve only been asked about a hundred times. Provide the statement that incited the violence. What was it… “peacefully march”? “We love you”? What was it, scooter? Either back up your statements or STOP LYING.
I guess you’ll be supportive of Republicans if they ever get the opportunity to impeach Obama.
@Nan G: Remember, Leahy was one of three Democrat Senators that tried to do to Trump what they blamed Trump for doing; threaten Ukraine with a loss of funds if they didn’t make up some dirt to use against him. Yeah, let’s trust Leahy to be fair. NO Democrat is trustworthy. If they were trustworthy, they wouldn’t be Democrats.
@retire05: Like Schumer, Trump incites erections for him. But it’s not that big a problem.
@Greg: If you don’t like the insults, why don’t you try stopping your incessant lying? If you want any respect, begin the rehabilitation of your credibility. To rehabilitate your credibility, stop lying and running away from questions.
@Greg:
I hereby award you, with the power invested in me, by myself, the certificate of MSM parrot and mind controlled LIAR of the hour. (kazoo music) In addition to this prestigious award I will personally add a fools gold plated star (more kazoo)
There ya go brother, I hope your “investments” are not tied to the hedgers that are about to go down. (hindenburg “oh the humanity sound track”) If you are then I guess you can go make solar panels in Joes green shovel ready(not so much) jobs.
@Greg: @Greg: #28
This is as low as it gets, Greg. That’s the exact reasoning used as an excuse by an abuser.
“It’s not my fault, it’s your fault!”
“You made me lose my temper!”
Curt, I hope you will let this remain, it summarizes my thoughts exactly:
Fuck you, Greg. When you use the words of a spouse and child abuser to justify excusing violence by claiming that someone else made them lose their temper, then you, sir, are truly scum of the lowest order.
Crawl back into your pit with your fellow vipers and don’t pollute this place where the rest of us hang out.
Get the picture, you abusive freak?