Source: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
When this idea first started percolating on Twitter among
the Very Online Left, I dismissed it as silliness. Nancy Pelosi wants
impeachment over and done with, and she's made a grand show of carrying this 'duty' out with
supposed 'prayerful solemnity.' It seemed obvious that she would
instantly dismiss any harebrained scheme that would needlessly and pointlessly
drag out the process, accomplish nothing, and fuel the Trump narrative that the
whole enterprise is a petty partisan sham. And
yet...
---
In a remarkable press
conference, Pelosi refused to say repeatedly if the House would send over the
articles to the Senate. She would not guarantee sending over the articles to
the Senate until they are assured a fair trial. She wouldn’t describe what a fair
trial was.
----
Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to commit Wednesday
to delivering articles of impeachment to the Senate, citing concerns about an
unfair trial on removing President Donald Trump from office.
Senior
Democratic aides said the House was “very unlikely” to take the steps necessary
to send the articles to the Senate until at least early January, a delay of at
least two weeks and perhaps longer.
“So far we haven’t seen anything that looks
fair to us,” Pelosi told reporters at a news conference just moments after the
House charged Trump with abuse of power and obstructing congressional
investigations. “That would’ve been our intention, but we’ll see what happens
over there.”
By delaying passage of that resolution, Pelosi and top
Democrats retain control of the articles and hope to put pressure on Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to adopt trial procedures they
consider bipartisan.
I fail to see the "pressure" or
"leverage" this plan allegedly places on Senate Republicans. Mitch
McConnell will happily ignore the House's dumb games, keep
confirming judges day after day, and hammer House Democrats for their
unseriousness -- which would likely further erode support for impeachment.
Remember, Democrats argued that they had to rush through the process at warp
speed because time was of the essence and our very "democracy was at stake," or whatever.
But now they're going to sit on the articles of impeachment they've passed, for
an indefinite period of time, until...Senate Republicans adopt
minority-demanded rules that are less favorable to President Trump than the
1999 trial rules were for President Clinton? C'mon.
This is
especially rich, given Team Pelosi's dominance of the process in the lower
chamber, eschewing the bipartisan template set out during the
previous two modern impeachments.
Democrats say the evidence they've collected is
open-and-shut. Clear as day. Indisputable. They should be eager to allow the
'jury' to weigh it and render a verdict. They now claim that the trial won't be
"fair" because some of the jurors aren't impartial, citing comments
from McConnell and Graham. Wait until they hear some of the things Chuck
Schumer said in the late 1990s about the Clinton impeachment trial. Or
what Democratic jurors are saying this very week. Recuse:
-----
Non-impartial juror, in
plain sight. Recuse! That’s the rule right?
----
Let's face it, very few of them are impartial in any true
sense. With the exception of maybe half a dozen Senators, everybody knows
exactly how they'll all vote. That's how partisan impeachments go.
Pelosi knows this, which is why she was opposed to partisan impeachments. Until she
wasn't. And she was all about a somber, no-nonsense vote. Until she
wasn't. And she started playing footsie with this preposterous,
unprecedented 'impeach and withhold' nonsense.
McConnell ridiculed
Pelosi's foolish misstep during a lengthy
floor speech on impeachment this morning:
In March, Speaker Pelosi said this: “Impeachment is so
divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and
overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because
it divides the country.” End quote.
By the Speaker’s own standards,
she has failed the country.
This case is not compelling, not
overwhelming, and as a result, not bipartisan. This failure was made clear to
everyone earlier this week, when Senator Schumer began searching for ways the
Senate could step out of our proper role and try to fix House Democrats’
failures for them.
And it was made even more clear last night, when Speaker
Pelosi suggested that House Democrats may be too afraid to even transmit their
shoddy work product to the Senate. The prosecutors are getting cold feet in
front of the entire country and second-guessing whether they even want to go to
trial.
They said impeachment was so urgent that it
could not even wait for due process but now they’re content to sit on their
hands. It is comical.
And now they're talking about needing to collect more evidence? Post-impeachment?
Why, it's almost as if they're partisan clowns, making things up as they
go along. It's the opposite of the image Pelosi has tried to cultivate
and project. And it undermines her accelerated timeline to get this whole
enterprise in the rearview mirror as soon as possible, especially given
the direction of public opinion.
This maneuver is a gift
to the GOP, and she's a sharp enough tactician to know it. It'll be the
most potent process complaint the president's defenders will have lodged to
date, and it will resonate, while her moderates twist in the wind. Like Allahpundit, I'm totally mystified by this. I'll
be surprised, and top Republicans will be delighted, if this self-inflicted
wound is allowed to bleed out much longer.
Yup:
---
McConnell: “It’s beyond
me how the Speaker and [Schumer] think withholding the articles of impeachment
gives them leverage … Frankly, I’m not anxious to have the trial … If she
thinks her case is so weak she doesn’t want to send it over, throw me into that
briar patch.”
---
As for misstep number two, I'll leave you with this -- which is far less serious and damaging, but further exposes Pelosi's unseriousness. You want to confirm that a partisan impeachment is a 'sham,' as some have argued all along? Play insane constitutional games and say things like this:
---
It’s a very prayerful
and solemn spring, though. The saddest spring.
-----
---
Bravo, Madame Speaker. Presidential misconduct aside, you've got yourself a ShamWow impeachment.
UPDATE - Are you serious?
You literally impeached the President of the United
States last night, for only the third time in the republic's
history, and you're absurdly declining to promptly send the articles to the
Senate for trial -- and you can't be bothered to answer annoying questions
about it?
---
"I’m not going to
go there anymore." — Speaker Pelosi, refusing to talk impeachment any
further.
______________
RELATED ARTICLES
Mark Levin: Nancy Pelosi's Latest Impeachment
Stunt Is Brazenly Unconstitutional
By Katie Pavlich |
Townhall.com
Source: (AP
Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Conservative radio host and constitutional scholar Mark
Levin is slamming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she threatened to withhold
two articles of impeachment against President Trump from the Senate Wednesday
night.
"Nancy Pelosi was apparently advised by leftwing
Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe to delay sending the impeachment to the
Senate. So she’s unilaterally sitting on the impeachment. This is another
brazen unconstitutional act," Levin wrote Thursday morning on his Facebook
page.
"Here’s what Mitch McConnell and the Senate
Republicans must do in response: The Senate has the sole power under the
Constitution to adjudicate an impeachment. Therefore, Pelosi is attempting to
obstruct the Senate’s power to act on its constitutional authority. McConnell
should immediately put an end to this and declare the impeachment null and void
as the speaker has failed to complete the impeachment process by timely sending
it to the Senate for adjudication," he continued. "McConnell has no
less authority to unilaterally make such a decision than Pelosi does to
withhold the administrative notification of an impeachment to the Senate either
indefinitely or with conditions. Her effort to cripple the presidency and
blackmail the Senate must be defeated."
As Matt covered last night, Pelosi threatened to hold the articles
if the Senate doesn't agree to conduct a "fair trial."
----
Reporter: Can you
guarantee that the impeachment articles will be at some point sent to the
Senate? Can you guarantee that?
@SpeakerPelosi:
That would've been our intention, but we'll see what happens over there.
We're still waiting on a decision about whethershe will
hand this off to McConnell.
_________________
Why House Republicans Should Take a Bow After
This Impeachment Fiasco Is Over
Source: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
The vote was inevitable. No one should have been shocked
about yesterday’s impeachment vote. The Democrats have had the votes for weeks.
The only question was how were House Republicans going to act in the face of
these shoddy impeachment charges against President Trump. They weren’t going to
let this go by smoothly—and they didn’t.
The point of order calls, motions to
adjourn, and roll call votes for everything concerning this circus was
pervasive. Slow down the works and gum them up. Make sure the cameras hear what
a shame this is—and they did. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) the ranking member on
the House Judiciary Committee did well under center executing this playbook.
Reps. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) were
other MVPs who made sure in their respective committees that Democrats weren’t
going to ring forward these articles with ease. That’s all they could do.
A united front was key concerning the optics of this
whole mess because it is a political matter. In past impeachments, a few votes
have peeled off in favor of this move. Not this time. We had total GOP support
behind Trump in yesterday’s vote on both articles. Abuse of power and
obstruction of Congress were the charges, and none of them passed the
constitutional standard for the circus that has engulfed Washington.
Crimes were actually committed in past impeachment pushes
Trump did no such thing here. For those who are paying attention to this
fiasco, this whole thing began in the super-secret basement of Rep. Adam Schiff
(D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, who held secret hearings
with witnesses, released selective transcripts of those testimonies that fit
the Democratic narrative, and only gave Republican members one-page summaries
that they could only read in front of a Democratic staffer.
When this whole
process came out of the bunker after the impeachment inquiry vote, then the
whole thing fell apart. It was very much a replay of the Russian collusion
delusion theater that dominated the news cycle for two years.
And the basis for this impeachment is also garbage. It’s
based on the allegation that Trump threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine
unless they opened a corruption probe into Hunter Biden’s board position on
Burisma, an energy company, which he filled during the Obama administration
when daddy Biden was VP. He has no experience in energy, but was making
$50,000/month and allegedly selling access to top Obama officials when Joe was
trying to combat corruption in Ukraine at the time. Despite what some think, it’s
a story, and the Biden campaign has failed miserably in trying to squash
it.
A reported CIA agent, who is also a registered Democrat,
had worked with a 2020 candidate and was a former staffer o Obama’s National
Security Council Staff, lobbed this quid pro quo allegation. This person
reached out to Schiff’s staff prior to filing the complaint. Schiff probably
knows who this person is and was privy to the contents of the whistleblower
report, which he planned to weaponize against Trump before it was officially
filed—talk about collusion, bias, and the deep state.
The grounds for impeachment are nonsense. How this all
came about was biased. Schiff was caught in a lie about not having contact with the
whistleblower before the complaint was filed as well. It reeked of a Democratic
witch-hunt. It is a Democratic witch-hunt. It’s a quasi-coup attempt, with the
Democratic Party, the anti-Trump deep state, and the liberal media being the
core principals in this charade. Squishy members could have bolted. They
didn’t. Even outgoing Congressman Will Hurd (R-TX), the one who was the most
open to these allegations, refused to cross the aisle as he saw the evidence was
lacking and rightfully so.
So, the GOP knew it was going down, but not before
beating the causes for impeachment to a bloody, messy pulp. Now, all that needs
to happen is for the Republican Senate to deliver the kill shot, which it will.
That’s why Speaker Nancy Pelosi is threatening to withhold the articles until
the Senate has a fair plan for trial or something. That’s not her call. Isn’t
that overreach, abuse of power, and setting the stage for a constitutional
crisis?
Democrats can’t abide by their own rules or standards because they
don’t have any. This whole circus has exposed them as being at the heart of the
rot of America. They’re cancer. And the best remedy is to vote Republican in
2020. I mean we’re already seeing the benefits.
-----
EXCLUSIVE: @GOP announced record fundraising numbers
amid the #impeachment
drive against @realDonaldTrump
hauling in a whopping $20.6 million in November-- highest November fundraising
in RNC history @GOPChairwoman https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-party-sets-fundraising-record-amid-impeachment-battle …
