The Constitution is pretty fucking clear in how vague it is about impeachment. All it says in Article I is "The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment" and "The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments" with more procedure following there.
But that's after impeachment in the House. In Article II, you get this: the president "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." That's interesting, no? Oh, and this: "The President...shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." There's also something about a jury not being required. There ya go. Everything else is up to the House of Representatives on how to proceed, which is guaranteed by the Constitution ("Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings"). Nothing in there about a vote to open an impeachment inquiry.
Nothing in there about anything. At this point, the Democratic-led House of Representatives can make up any fuckin' rules it wants: "Republicans can only ask questions if they do so without pants" or "Democrats can make farting noises when Republicans speak." Or, you know, let's just investigate this and get on with it, which is what Democrats are trying to do.
And since Donald Trump is the king of motherfucking, of course he was going to be a motherfucker about it. This has been his modus operandi his whole life: throw up as many lawsuits and delays as he can until the other side just gives up.
Now, his legal counsel has released a letter to the leadership of the House where it says that Trump ain't gonna eat his vegetables and that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are such mean meanies.
The letter is less a legal document and more a review of the script of every bullshit campaign ad that Trump has put out in the last couple of weeks. They've still got 2016 on the brain: "You seek to overturn the results of the 2016 election and deprive the American people of the President they have freely chosen. Many Democrats now apparently view impeachment not only as a means to undo the democratic results of the last election, but as a strategy to influence the next election, which is barely more than a year away" in order to defeat Trump.
This is the "state the obvious in a sinister way" strategy. Yeah, fucko, the purpose of an impeachment is ultimately to remove the president, which, obviously, somewhat undoes the last election (it won't undo the shit-ton of damage Trump has already done) and, yeah, obviously, it would influence the next election. Every time someone says this shit, someone else should be there to yell, "Duh" and "No shit, shit-for-brains."
The rest of the letter is a list of the Fox "news"-ready grievances and lies that Trump airs every fuckin' day on Hell's Twitter feed. The phone call with President Zelensky was "completely appropriate." Rep. Adam Schiff "covertly assisted" the whistleblower.
And, my favorite, Schiff created "a false version of the call and read it to the American people at a congressional hearing, without disclosing that he was simply making it all up," which is true if you're not a fucking moron and if Schiff hadn't said that he was speaking "the essence" of what Trump said, "shorn of its rambling character." By constantly insisting that Schiff didn't present it as a paraphrase, Trump is counting on his idiot hordes' idiocy (and probably revealing his own) in not understanding what Schiff said.
But even on substance, the letter is just fucking weird. There's the constant insistence on due process. And while, yes, there is some due process involved in hearings, what the letter demands is the full range of rights that would be available in a fucking trial, not in an investigation.
And as for the complaint that Republicans aren't allowed to subpoena people, well, fuck, each subpoena requires a vote of the full committee. So do they really fucking expect Democrats to go along with all the circus freaks that Republicans would want to put in front of the cameras to insist that Joe and Hunter Biden are the source of all corruption in the world? Shit, they'd probably wanna drag Hillary Clinton into it because they just can't quit her.
(Sidebar: As for "precedent," there was no Judiciary Committee investigation for Bill Clinton's impeachment because everything was based on the Starr Report. In other words, the investigation was done. Not so here.)
The letter even fucking lies about things. For instance, it reads, "The Committees have broadly threatened that if State Department officials attempt to insist upon the right for the Department to have an agency lawyer present at depositions to protect legitimate Executive Branch confidentiality interests-or apparently if they make any effort to protect those confidentiality interests at all-these officials will have their salaries withheld."
It cites a letter from the chairs of the committees to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan that's about Secretary of State and Trump's most loyal ass lamprey Mike Pompeo preventing DoS employees from testifying. Reps. Engel, Cummings, and Schiff say that House rules say that witnesses may have personal counsel present, but not Executive Branch counsel. And that "the same rule has been in place for more than a decade...and it was in place during Secretary Pompeo's tenure on the Benghazi Select Committee" back when Pompeo was just that fucking prick congressman from Kansas.
And the Democrats go on to say that, if you insist on violating the rules and force your employees to violate them, here are the penalties, including loss of salary, which is what the law calls for. Imagine how Pompeo would have blown a fucking fuse if Hillary Clinton (see? She's always around) had told the Benghazi committee to go fuck themselves. Republicans would have Benghazi'd the State Department themselves.
Most impotently, Trump challenges Pelosi to hold a vote on the inquiry: "the House of Representatives has never attempted to launch an impeachment inquiry against the President without a majority of the House taking political accountability for that decision by voting to authorize such a dramatic constitutional step." And that gives the game away. "Political accountability" just means "I want some shit to make more campaign ads. I want some names I can toss around at my rallies of the damned."
Right now, I'm hearing the punditocracy say that Democrats should knuckle under and let Republicans have more say. They keep talking about previous impeachment hearings like Republicans now are even remotely like Republicans in 1974 (and, in 1998, it was Republicans running it). Fuck that. They are rabid dogs. Rabid dogs don't get to be treated with "fairness."
Another one for you Hook. But I'm not really sure it's quite profane enough. Up to the demand so to speak. LOL!
This is of a piece with the lawsuit blocking the Southern District of New York from getting Trump's taxes. Trump's lawyers argued that the president can't be held accountable for any crimes while president. It was such a breathtaking argument that a federal judge said, essentially, "Oh, fuck to the no on that shit." Now, in this letter to Democrats, his lawyer is arguing that you can't impeach the president if the president doesn't think he should be impeached. Or, in other words, he's not just above the law; he's above the Constitution.
Democrats should respond to the letter by escalating this shit. Break out the inherent contempt. Arrest some motherfuckers. Make people beg to talk. They wanna play this hard? You gotta go harder. Fuck going high. Break the foundation under them.
It would be a shame if an incompetent, openly racist bigot wound up in the White House with the assistance of a foreign power that wants to see America destroyed from within.
Be a shame if that “pResident” insulted our allies, praised our enemies, and put inept and corrupt cronies in positions of power.
Be a shame if that incompetent, self-absorbed “pResident” incited his adherents to violence, and then continually pointed out the targets their anger should be directed at: Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants, political opponents, and pretty much everyone who ever uttered a word against him.
Be a shame if that lying buffoon of a “pResident” did everything in his power to pit citizens against their fellow citizens, and encouraged them to see each other as enemies.
Be a shame if a major American political party not only supported that “pResident’s” agenda of demonizing those he has labelled as enemies, but did everything they could do enable it.
Be a shame if the only way that major political party could even hope to win elections is to intimidate voters and suppress votes, while their “pResident” threatens that ”there will be violence” if the opposing political party gains any power.
Be a shame if a nation once recognized as a beacon of freedom started locking innocent children in cages because brown-skinned kids “don’t belong here” and should be treated as criminals.
Be a shame if that political party plunged the nation into debt in order to give tax-cuts to the wealthy, overturned regulations that protect the environment, did everything they could to take healthcare coverage away from those who need it, and refused to take any steps towards sensible gun control.
We had a nice country here – it would be a shame if any of the above happened – and yet all of it is happening right now.
We have a so-called “pResident” who is inciting violence. And when that violence manifests itself, he and his party deny any responsibility for the conflagration they have ignited and the consequences of their incendiary rhetoric.
We are being told that victims are to blame for their own misfortune – that rape survivors “asked for it”, that unarmed teachers are the cause of children being gunned-down in schools – and now that synagogues are at fault for not having armed guards at their places of worship.
The Republicans have gone from being mere enablers – they are now collaborators. They are no different than those who once collaborated with the Nazis by selling-out their countries and their countrymen in the hope of maintaining political power and personal wealth under a despicable new regime.
They are no different than those who cheered as their Fuhrer filled cattle-cars with “enemies of the people” destined for gas chambers. They are no different than those who went along to get along as Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and the mentally ill were targeted by their Dear Leader as “undesirables” who had no right to legal protection – and, more to the point, had no right to live.
“Nice country you’ve got here – be a shame if something happened to it.”
Yeah, it would. Be a shame if we had a “pResident” who encourages his dumb-as-shit followers to take matters into their own hands and send pipe-bombs to his perceived enemies, and shoot down worshippers targeted as defenders of those perceived enemies.
We are in a very bad place as a nation – a place constructed by a traitor doing Putin’s bidding, a place of ginned-up animosity towards those who defy that traitor, a place where bigots and racists are encouraged to take up arms in order to purge the country of the “undesirables” who still believe in the rule of law, freedom of the press, and the principles of democracy.
Be a shame if something happened to our country – be a worse shame if we didn’t vote in November to rid ourselves of the collaborators who are working so hard to destroy it.
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