It is Sunday night as I pen this for Wednesday morning’s publishing. If all goes according to scheduling as of this writing today is the opening day of the House impeachment inquiry. With that in mind I want to look back at a few events of the recent past and what I anticipate some of the Republican distraction attempts will be in and around the hearings. Let’s explore.
One of the Republican talking points around the inquiry is why conduct it when the next general election is less than a year away? Their “rationale” is: why should 535 members of Congress decide Trump’s fate when the voters can do the same in November of 2020?
The answers are found in the Constitution. We have a republic (which is really just a representative democracy) because it has always been impractical in a country this size for everyone to vote on every issue. Therefore we elect members of the House and Senate to represent us. Along those lines, if we are going to have a referendum on everything why are we paying 535 people a minimum of $174,000 per year to sit in Congress? Don’t bother doing the math on that because that cost is only the tip of the iceberg. You have to add in the cost of their staffs, travel and other expenses along with the buildings that house them.
Furthermore, impeachment is in the Constitution as is congressional oversight. It is not some lark; it is the duty of Congress. I’ve read the oath of office (also contained in the Constitution) and it says nothing about being loyal to Donald Trump.
The Constitution aside, let’s try to follow the “logic” for a moment. Trump’s apologist are suggesting we allow the 2020 election that Trump is actively welcoming foreign interference in to be the judge. This reminds me of a story from my coaching days. We were traveling to a state whose officials had a reputation for being very “helpful” to in state teams when they hosted an out of state opponent. As we crossed the state line a sign read “Welcome to (state name deleted for this article)”; on the bus we added the words “You’re down by 20 (colorful word deleted in the interest of keeping the PG rating)”.
Another excuse is that Trump and his administration are too incompetent to have purposely extorted Ukraine. I’m certainly not going to portray Trump or his minions as geniuses but if they truly are that incompetent that alone is reason to remove them from office.
When “first round draft choice” Trey Gowdy failed to sign on with Team Trump I guess we found out who the “second round draft choice” was. It was announced that Pam Bondi would be joining the communications shop at the White House specifically to work on the impeachment. If her name is familiar it is with good reason. Bondi was Florida’s Attorney General. One of the cases pending was a suit against Trump University. Soon after receiving a $25,000 reelection campaign donation from The Donald J. Trump Foundation, Bondi decided not to pursue the case. Of course the charity making that donation was an illegal act which the charity later paid an IRS fine for. That is the same charity that just got hit with a $2 million judgement for its illegal activities. By the way, Bondi has to clear up a little problem with her current job where she is a registered lobbyist for the country of Qatar.
If you happened to make a donation to the Republican National Committee (RNC) recently you might want to know how they are spending your money. Reportedly they picked up the $60,000 tab for Trump, his two oldest sons, Representatives Kevin McCarthy of California, Peter King of New York and Mark Meadows of North Carolina (all Republicans) to attend a cage fighting match in New York City.
A week earlier they picked up the tab for Trump and a double digit entourage to attend the fifth game of the World Series. Those seats were $465 per copy. Oh, and these were not the first times the RNC picked up the tab for Trump to go to an athletic event.
Trump has been a proponent of a wall on the southern border for what he claims is border security. I am among the many (and I mean very, very many) who thought that Trump’s solution was inane. Who was a wall going to stop? Despite Trump’s repeated claims to the contrary no new sections of wall have been built but some existing sections in need of maintenance have been replaced with a new Trump approved wall. The news broke that smugglers have been compromising the new sections with a reciprocating saw. Other than I told you so, all I can say is hopefully they bought them at Lowe’s because Home Depot is a major Republican donor.
I’m confused. Is Trump insane, is he just so arrogant that he feels he can do anything he wants regardless of how outrageous it is, is he just trying to insult every American with an IQ over room temperature or all of the above?
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