If Democrats think President Trump is going to provide to them a trove of documents and/or comply with subpoenas related to his classified interactions with the Ukrainian government without their full commitment to a real impeachment process, they’ve got another thing coming. Until Democrats fully unleash this dog that only the extremist Democrat base thinks will hunt, the president should hand over exactly jack squat.
The impeachment “inquiry” circus, if and when it ever morphs into a legitimate House impeachment vote and passes, will have no chance of surviving either a Senate trial or up-down motion to dismiss. That’s the consensus even on the Democrat side. Dems won’t openly admit it, but everybody, even Senator Mitt Romney, knows that what’s really behind this politically-motivated travesty is the desperate hope that Trump will be so weakened by impeachment that his prospects for reelection will be mortally wounded.
Why the big rush to impeach? Why all this inane talk of having it “done by Thanksgiving”? If it is such a great idea, if anyone other than the Democrat kook base wants this, wouldn’t it be better to prolong the House inquiry, drag out the process, the subpoenas, the various feints and thrusts, so that it hangs over the Trump administration for months? If it is calculated to undermine confidence in the president, why rush to button things up expeditiously? Isn’t it possible that a Democrat-only impeachment will be old news by the time voters head to the polls next November 3?
Democrats want to sign, seal, and deliver impeachment quickly because it’s a bad idea. Proof of this bad idea’s worthlessness is demonstrated by the fact that they have thus far bent over backward to avoid committing to a historically and constitutionally indicated impeachment vote. Forty-odd Democrats holding seats in “purple” districts will be placed at risk of electoral defeat if forced to vote on this rabidly partisan folly. Enraged Trump supporters will turn out big league. These newly-elected Dems are in an untenable position. They’ll get shellacked if they do and earn the undying enmity of their fellow Democrats if they don’t. They will go along, they must.
Democrats are trying to have it both ways while they stick a big toe in the impeachment waters. They’re floating the cachet of impeachment without the consequences. It’s not going to work that way. If impeachment is such a great idea, if anyone other than the unhinged, terminally angry Democrat base wants this, let them start the House floor countdown forthwith, and allow the American people to see exactly where everybody stands.
What the hell, let’s get ‘er done before Halloween.
Why on earth would President Trump and his administration cooperate with a charade, the sole purpose of which is to make him look bad? Why should he give them ammunition that furthers a sideshow that realist Democrats know is a bad idea? Why should Trump open the books for a pack of jackals with a prior record of having one goal and one goal only—to drag him down. The questions continue: why should the president provide sensitive executive branch documents and answer subpoenas that further a process in which he will have no substantive right to defend himself?
They changed the rules on inter-agency intelligence sharing while Barack Obama was on his way out the door. They quietly moved the whistleblower goalposts fifteen minutes ago. This is a deep, Deep State.
Stay the course, Mr. President. Sixty-three million voters and counting support you 1000 percent. Require these sore losers and constitutional scofflaws to put their votes where their mouths are. Take it to the brink. Your supporters are prepared to back you all the way.
Fear of stretching impeachment into the upcoming election cycle and dancing around the constitutional requirement of taking a full House vote on sending articles of impeachment to the Senate are two indicators that put the lie to this desperate strategy.
Make them own it.
Mark Ellis is the author of A Death on the Horizon, a novel of political upheaval and cultural intrigue. He came aboard at PJ Media in 2015. His literary hangout is Liberty Island. Follow Mark on Twitter.
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