The Impeachment Trial: It's Over

The Senate acquitted Trump today on an article of impeachment for inciting a riot.  The vote was 57-43, ten short of conviction, and Senators William Cassidy of Louisiana and Richard Burr of North Carolina joined the five Republicans voting for conviction (Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania) who had also voted with the Democrats to hold the trial on the grounds that it was constitutional to try a former President.  But the result was still ten votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

Some observers are already declaring that this spells doom for the party, and I don't mean the Republicans.  The Democrats are being taken to task for backing off on plans to call witnesses when it was suggested that Senate Republicans would filibuster President Biden's agenda if they did.  The Trump base, we are told, has been energized by the acquittal and are even more motivated to take back Congress for the Republicans in 2022, and thanks to slim Democratic majorities in both houses, potential district gerrymandering by Republican state legislatures, and new voter-suppression tactics, it's all but certain to happen.  The only glimmer of integrity from the Republican side came from, of all people, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who voted to acquit Trump on the basis of the fact that Trump was no longer President but still excoriated Trump for inciting the riot and letting it happen.

Such comments, aimed at placating Republican donors, would have had much more sincerity from a man who refused to call the Senate back in session for a trial when he was Majority Leader until after Trump was out of office.  

And that's one more reason why non-Senators Cal Cunningham and Sara Gideon should, like all losing Democratic Senate candidates, should be forced to wear scarlet "L"s (for loser) on their clothes and never be allowed to run again.  (And Amy McGrath deserves two of them.)  If the Democrats had won a Senate majority before the Georgia runoffs, Charles Schumer would have been in a position to have the trial started when Trump was still in office.

But it wouldn't have made a difference.  Not enough Republicans would have voted to convict Trump if the trial had started before January 20.  For that reason, House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin's  not to call witnesses was probably the right call.  Because again, the outcome would not have changed.

I think the acquittal has brought the United States to rock bottom, a point we've been sliding toward for forty years.  Maybe now we have nowhere to go but up.  After all, this conviction vote was the most bipartisan conviction vote against a President in Senate history.  A majority of Americans thought that Trump should have been convicted.  New evidence that Trump tried to bully House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has proved to be especially damning. President Biden has managed to escape being drawn into this mess.  And with COVID numbers slowly receding, the President now has a chance to get his agenda through and turn this ship of state around.  And Trump will more likely than not be convicted in a criminal court, with ongoing investigations in two states for business and election law violations.  President Biden's Department of Justice  - which still doesn't have a confirmed Attorney General - is under pressure to investigate Trump, but the DOJ probably won't have to do a thing.

So why don't we all take a deep breath, get a rest during the Presidents' Day holiday (without any irony whatsoever), and get ready to climb out of this hole?

There Was a Riot Goin' On

Like many people across America, I saw the House impeachment managers present video evidence at Donald Trump's Senate trial of how close congressional lawmakers - and then-Vice President Mike Pence came to being assassinated, as shown in the video still below, and the managers tied it perfectly to Trump's call for a "wild" time on January 6.  More is to come today.

Alas, you can count all of the Senate Republicans currently siding with Trump who can be persuaded to change their minds on one hand with fingers to spare.  And I'm being optismtic.  Trump is still going to be acquitted, and that means he's still likely to remain a free man unless the Justice Department finds reason to prosecute him.  And so it's easy to understand why Trump bootlicker Lindsey Graham has been holding Merrick Garland's appointment as President Biden's Attorney General.

But a federal investigation may be unnecessary, as there is now a criminal investigation focusing on Trump's meddling in the state of Georgia for that obscene phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.  It looks like the case that puts Trump in the slammer will come not from the Empire State but the Empire State of the South.

Peachy.  

Impeachment: Perception Versus Reality

Perception:  The Senate had a chance to hear witnesses in the impeachment trial because several Republican senators were retiring and the Democrats only needed four votes.

Reality: The Democrats only got two votes, those of Mitt Romney of Utah ad Susan Collins of Maine.  They were never going to get four votes, because Lisa Murkowski of Alaska found the badgering of the Chief Justice by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to be highly politicized (nice going, Liz!), while Lamar Alexander of Tennessee thought there was enough evidence already to convict on an offense he didn't consider impeachable anyway.

Perception: The Senate is the world's greatest deliberative body.

Reality: The Senate ain't even the world's greatest smoking club.  Republicans and Democrats in the Senate hate each other, and they can't even bear to be in the same committee room with each other.  There was no way they could run a fair-minded, sober impeachment trial.

Perception:  John Bolton's book is going to reveal so much about Trump's dealings with Ukraine that he will be found guilty in the court of public opinion.

Reality:  Are you talking about the same public who thinks that John Bolton is the guy who sang "Love Is a Wonderful Thing"?  Even if people are paying enough attention to make an informed decision about Trump, Bolton's book will never see the light of day apart from the passages that have already been leaked, because the White House will block it from ever getting published.  We have a better chance of seeing what is likely Woody Allen's last movie released first.    

Perception:  People will remember what the Senate did on Friday and they will exact revenge on the Republicans in November.

Reality:  People can't even remember how "This Is Us" ended last week, and it's being pre-empted by the State Of the Union address this week, so it's a wonder anyone will pick up the storyline of "This Is Us" next week.  I won't, but then it's just about the only current scripted show I ever watch anymore.

Perception:  The Democrats will remind everyone what Trump did all the way through November.

Reality:  The Republicans will shut them up and shut them down.  If you're a Republican, you prevent any discussion of an issue that doesn't work in your favor from happening.  It's what you do.  If you buy car insurance from Geico, you save 15 percent or more.  It's what you do.

Perception:  Democrats will win in 2020 by talking not just about impeachment but also about kitchen-table issues like health care.

Reality:  What did I just say?

Perception: Now that the impeachment trial is nearing its end, Joe Biden will benefit from not having to hear about Burisma anymore.

Reality: The only thing Republicans do better than shutting down discussions of stuff they don't want to talk about is amplifying and perpetuating stuff  they do want to talk about.  Expect Burisma to be the new Benghazi, and expect the mention of one Robert Hunter Biden as well.  In fact, despite his absence from the campaign trail, Bernie Sanders has been gaining in in Iowa, and he will likely win tomorrow's presidential caucuses and leap his way to the nomination.  And, as the Democratic nominee, he will likely lead the party to a crushing defeat so bad that it will take them until 2032 to recover if they're lucky.  Did I happen to mention that Sanders isn't even a Democrat?

Perception: The impeachment trial sham will encourage young people to follow the lead of young progressive leaders like Sanders supporter Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and get to the polls in droves in the fall.

Reality:  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has turned out to be more of a show horse than a work horse.  She has since joined Beto O'Rourke as one of this century's Great American Phonies.  And I am sorry I, even in jest, proposed marriage to her on this blog.

Perception:  The United States will survive the Trump Presidency.

Reality: How do I break this to you?

Perception:  The American people have a lot of questions about how this trial was conducted and what answers about Trump's misdeeds.

Reality:  Yeah, right.  The only question Americans have right now is, "Who's going to win the Super Bowl tonight?"

Perception:  Democracy is important to Americans.

Reality: But it won't save you money on car insurance!

*

Why haven't you called Geico? :-p 

Bolton Loose

Why is this man smiling?

And, may I add, he may be the only Republican that is smiling right now.

The New York Times reported earlier this week the John Bolton is saying in his forthcoming book that Trump told him this past summer that he wanted military aid to Ukraine to remain frozen until Ukrainian officials could assure Trump that they would aid until officials there pursue investigations not just into the Bidens, but also into Democrats in general.

All I can say is, that's one hell of a promotional stunt!

The book was leaked from the National Security Council office, where Bolton's book is betting, umm, vetted.

Democrats are now demanding that Bolton be called in as a witness in the Trump impeachment trial, and even some Republicans, such as Mitt Romney of Utah, would like to hear friom Milk Mustache Man.  This trial is getting interesting.  We all know how it's going to end, but we don't know how it's going to get to the end.   

Impeachment? PAH!

The House impeachment managers have done a very effective job in outlining the case for removing Donald J. Trump from the Presidency.  But who cares?

Look, we know the Senate isn't going to remove Trump from office.  We also know that conviction and removal won't even get a bare majority of 51 votes, though 67 are needed to convict. Not only are Republican senators likely to support blocking further evidence, so are Republican voters.  The impeachment managers have been reduced to showing video clips of past House testimony and past media interviews in lieu of real documents, and despite their strong, forceful prosecution, they might as well have made things up as they went, for all the good it's done them.  (The defense begins its arguments today.)  Republican senators inclined to support Trump - that is,. all of them - are mostly likely passing the time playing cat's cradle, drawing pictures of cowboys, or maybe clipping their toenails.

Adam Schiff and his crew are fighting the good fight, and their arguments might persuade the American people to put Trump at a disadvantage in November.  But if they think they are going to bother the conscience of at least one Republican senator - even Susan Collins - they are sadly mistaken.

Wake me when it's over.  Normally I love watching a comedy where  I know the ending, but . . .  

Dersh

Joining a who's who of right-wing legal eagles for Trump's defense team in the impeachment trial is none other than that old Harvard fossil Alan Dershowitz, a liberal Democrat who can't seem to find anything wrong with what Trump has been doing in office on . . . constitutional grounds?

I tuned into CNN to hear Dersh's reason for defending Trump, and he more or less went on saying, "Well, Trump didn't violate Constitution I gotta say nothing wrong with exerting power not a high crime he can get foreign policy Ukraine is simple policy dispute we don't want to use impeachment trivial purpose Constitution Constitution deal and the phone call but it doesn't amount to level Constitution Constitution 1787 the Founding Fathers advice consent it's constitutional foreign affairs letter of the law we have to point out Ukrainian policy . . ." for twenty minutes or so, and I didn't understand a word that he said . . .

. . . but he says he's not defending what Trump did, he's just making the constitutional argument against impeachment.

Uh, I'm still missing something here . . .. 

Should be an interesting show, this trial . . . (Freudian slip there!)