And so it begins, I was eagerly tuned to the radio last Thursday,
(Halloween, of all days) but I fear I was in the minority, even
amongst my fiends. They are getting tired of me and my obsession
with all things Trump. They have moved on with their lives. In
the beginning they were as appalled as I at Trump's unpresidential
behavior, his speeches elicited laughter, his demeanor resulted in
head shaking disbelief. There were jokes about his limited
vocabulary and his penchant for lying in the face of overwhelming
evidence to the contrary. But the jokes have wore thin and the daily
onslaught is wearyingly banal.
If these women, strident female libbers that they are, can ignore the
ever-worsening news from the White House and not be incensed,
ignore the increasing aberrant antics of a man who seems to be losing
his grip on reality, if they can say they just don't care anymore, what
chance is there for the rest of us? The general consensus seems to be
nothing will ever change, it's all a tempest in a teapot, all done for show.
Both side prancing and preening for their constituents and nothing more.
But there is something more, and everyday more and more of it is revealed,
and with each new testimony something new is discovered. It is becoming
harder and harder to deny the evidence. So, what do the Republicans do,
they attack the proceedings. They say the hearings are done in secret, and
they are not allowed in, both of which are blatantly false, they stormed
the hearing room at the behest of the President, and when the pizza ran out
they quietly went home like sheep being herded out of the pasture, and
like sheep they may be headed to the abattoir.
The Republicans protested the closed-door hearings and when the House
announced that the hearings will be opened to all, including TV, they protested
that also. They don't like the rules, though they are the same rules that they
established for the Clinton impeachment. They want to see the transcripts
from the closed-door hearing, and when Rep. Adam Schiff said the
transcripts will be available in the coming week, the Republicans said,
not soon enough. There seems to be a pattern emerging here.
Trump had said that the call to Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president-elect, was
beautiful and his denial of wrongdoing just doesn't hold water anymore.
What now? Trump and the Republicans say that, OK the President did
ask Zelenskiy to look into Hunter Biden, but that there was nothing wrong
with that. Holding back money and presidential influence is done all the
time. It is at the discretion of the President. So, the defense changed; Trump
did it but it wasn't wrong, except his own intelligence people saw it differently.
The testimony of Lt. Col. Vindman, a decorated war hero, who was listening
in on the call, said he found it 'troubling'. The President was asking a foreign
government to investigate a potential political rival in exchange for money
and a visit to the White House. And his testimony was just one of several others.
In addition to asking about the Bidens, Trump also asked about the computer
server that was used to hack into the DNC data base in 2016. It appears
that Trump just cannot get over the vote count in 2016.
So let us reiterate, first Trump didn't do it, then he did do it but it wasn't wrong,
and finally it was wrong, but it doesn't rise to the level of high crimes and
misdemeanors necessary for impeachment. Ah, but obstruction of Congress
does, and the more the administration stymies the investigation the closer
it get gets to obstruction. The cover-up is what brought down the Nixon
presidency.
Today, November 3, 2019, is exactly one year to the date of the 2020
presidential election, and only three months to the Iowa Caucasus, and
what is going on in Washington hasn't even rippled the waters, but it
should. A president who believes what he is does is justifiable because he
is the president is dangerous. If Donald Trump is allowed to walk away from
this, he will be emboldened to try something else. After all it was just one
day after the Mueller Report announced no collusion with Russia during the
2016 election, that Trump tried to coerce the Ukraine government to
interfere in the 2020 election. it is frightening to think of what he would attempt
after being found not guilty in the Senate trial. And if the Senate thinks they
could contain him in 2020 they are bigger fools than I believe them to be. It is
time for the Congress to stand up and take back the powers they have been
ceding to this president. Or...There may be another way out; censure!
Censure by the entire Congress, the House and Senate with a super majority vote.
Andrew Jackson was censured by the Senate, and John Tyler was censured by the
House, both were strictly political actions. I firmly believe there are enough
Republicans who think that Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency, and they
would be judged harshly by history if they acquitted him, but they are afraid to
come forward. The Democrats know if they proceed with the impeachment,
they will lose. They will lose the trial and the House and the White House in
2020 and who knows how far beyond. That is a big price to pay.
But Trump cannot get away with his distain of the Constitution, he must be
brought to heel. A record of censure by the entire Congress would be something
Trump has never had to deal with, being told he is wrong, by his peers. And
there is always the threat of prosecution once he has left office.
Time is running out and to quote the bard: "If it were done when 'tis done, then
'twere well it were done quickly... That but this blow, might be the be-all and
end-all here".
I'm just sayin'.
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