Impeachment and Investigations

The House of Representatives is preparing two articles of impeachment against Trump - abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.  House Democrats could have considered more articles that they knew moderate Democrats would join Republicans in voting down to help them look independent of the party's liberal leadership, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided that it would be better to have two articles that spoke directly to the Ukraine scandal and could be unanimously passed by the Democratic House caucus - because it would allow the public to focus more squarely on Ukraine.  That's a risk, but not as big a risk as House Democrats passing the United States-Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade - NAFTA Mark Two.  It allows the Democrats to say that they're doing something other than focusing on impeachment, but it gives Trump something to brag about.  However, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where a few Republicans could sink the agreement because it gives too many favors to labor interests or makes some products in America too expensive.   Then Trump loses his bragging rights and his ability to take all of the credit for it while Democrats can still say they did their part. 

Meanwhile,an investigation by the Justice Department's Inspector General into Trump's Russia ties during the 2016 presidential campaign - "Crossfire Hurricane," named apparently for a Rolling Stones lyric - shows that the FBI did nothing wrong in the investigation but made some embarrassing mistakes in the process, and that there was no bias against Trump or anyone and no Deep State.  Trump doesn't buy that, of course, and neither does his Attorney General, Bill Barr. Now, under the leadership of its chairman Lindsey Graham, the Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating the FBI further to undermine the IG's report even further and make the FBI look worse.  But making the FBI look bad, considering its past abuses, isn't all that hard to do, given the history of the bureau under J. Edgar Hoover.  And what a coincidence it indeed is that this Senate Judiciary Committee investigation is getting underway just as Clint Eastwood's latest movie as a director about a much more recent case of FBI abuse is opening this weekend.

Richard Jewell.  Yeah, I want to see it . . . you already know what I think about that case.