Weekly Opinion Editorial
by Steve Fair
Impeachment of President Trump appears to
be on the horizon. Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi, who has opposed impeaching Trump in the past, said, “We could not ignore what the president did.
He gave us no choice. So it wasn't any change of mind. I always said we will
follow the facts where they take us. And when we see them, we will be ready.
And we are ready.” According to a
CNN poll of U.S. House members, a clear majority- 223(all Democrats) of the 435-
support impeaching the president.
Impeachment does not remove the president
from office. In our nation’s history,
only two presidents have been impeached- Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Neither were removed. Impeachment is the process
by which a legislative body levels charges against a government official. It is the equivalent to an indictment in
criminal law, and thus is only the statement of charges against the official. If the House votes to impeach, a trial will
take place in the U.S. Senate, where a 2/3 majority is needed to remove from
office. With Republicans having 53 of
the 100 members, getting to 67 is a tough hill to climb.
First, Pelosi and the Democrats are not
concerned with facts. In spite of her
claim the House will conduct a fair and through investigation into Trump’s call
with the Ukrainian president, their track record indicates otherwise. The Democrats- in lock step- have opposed everything
Trump has done. They practice ‘group
think’ and are blindly loyal to their cause. They are willing to excuse bad behavior in
the name of unity, which is a form of collusion- the very thing they condemn in
Trump. It is true that no one is above
the law, but Pelosi seems willing to turn a blind eye to misbehavior on her
side of the aisle.
Second, the Senate trial could hurt Biden and Democrats more than Trump. With Republicans in control, they will likely
investigate Hunter Biden’s association with the Ukrainian company and if he
violated any U.S. laws. If they go back
far enough, they could look into Joe Biden’s brother, James and Hunter purchase
of a hedge fund-Paradigm Global Advisors in 2006. According to an unnamed executive quoted in Politico, James Biden told employees the
first day: “Don’t
worry about investors. We’ve got people all around the world who want to invest
in Joe Biden. We’ve got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash
ready to invest in this company,” At that time, Joe Biden was months away
from becoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and launching
his second bid for president. Was the
purchase made to work around campaign- finance laws?
Third, the 116th Congress will not get much else done in 2020. Expect the impeachment and subsequent trial
to consume the legislative calendar. The
people’s business will be pushed to the next year. That could backfire on the Democrats in the
2020 elections.
Citizens of all political stripes are fed
up with the bickering, polarizing, positioning, partisan behavior on both sides. Their predictability is boring and doesn’t
move the country forward. Expect it to
get worse before it gets better.Steve's note: A reader said Pelosi's statement reminded him of the scene in Thelma & Louise where they drove off the cliff. For those who haven't seen the movie, here is a clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=4z88U915uq8
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