Run Away, Run Away
I have managed to avoid listening to the broadcasts of the Senate Impeachment trial which began today. Granted, the opening statements are not expected to be high drama and the meat of the trial, but as I tune in tonight to catch up on the day I note a few important things. To begin with its 9:30pm and they are still going strong with their statements and amendments votes. They have just voted 53 to 47, along party lines, for the fourth time now to table the resolutions put forth by the Senate Democrats to seek documents and witnesses. I’m not sure how many more amendments the Democrats plan to put forth, but it’s clear that the Republicans think it’s too many and the Democrats are determined to hang what they consider to be a sham of a trial out to dry for the American public to be unable to ignore. This is high drama of a sort. The Democrats are determined to drag out the trial while the Republicans are trying to make it go away as quickly as possible.
They are now trying to figure out whether they should muscle through the night on these amendment votes or postpone until tomorrow. They’ve just realized that Chief Justice Roberts has a day job and has to hear a case st the Supreme Court in the morning and isn’t available until 1pm. That is decidedly not good news for the Republican “Bum’s Rush” program.
One of the most interesting observations I have is about the House prosecutors led by Rep. Adam Schiff versus the President’s defense team led by Pat Cipollone, White House Counsel. There is a marked difference in each teams’ command of the facts and details of this case and how they are presenting it. I recognize my natural bias, but it is clear that the President does not have the ability to marshall the proverbial “Best and Brightest”. We’ve all wondered for some time about who would be so willing to subject themselves to this Crazytown team of the Trump Administration. In the beginning Mattis, Tillerson, McMaster and Cohn could argue that they had the important role of tempering the beast. Eventually they all left shaking their heads mumbling words like “moron” and “idiot”. Now it is almost impossible for Trump to recruit anyone of quality to his team. So much for “the best people”, the man cannot recruit almost anyone anymore. Who would choose to go into the breach and risk their reputation on the razor’s edge of being called a sycophant on the one hand, or the worse names that Trump is likely to call them if they do not exactly do his bidding regardless of the righteousness of the action. Perhaps the best outcome they could hope for is for Trump to do his common knee-jerk of impugning someone who leaves by saying he didn’t really even know them much less rely on them for anything. It is no wonder this team of lawyers look like stumble-bums rather than clinically sharpe attorneys.
At one point I was surprised to see one of Cipollone’s team get up and blatantly lie about facts of the Ukrainian events. Adam Schiff got up and politely refuted the factual errors with no push-back from the other side, which seemed strange. It was Maya Wiley of MSNBC who explained that this was a startlingly clear tactical maneuver by the defense team to give the likes of Fox or any MAGA folks watching the sound bites they like hearing, regardless of their veracity. That is shocking when you think about it. A lawyer for the President knowingly telling a bald-faced lie on the floor of the Senate and on global TV, just to give the a Trump base a feel-good. No wonder no one wants that job.
They are now voting on the fifth Democratic amendment to get documentary evidence from the Department of Defense. Yep, it too has been tabled by another Republican Party-line vote and we are now on to the sixth amendment. What is also becoming clear is that the Democrats are executing this brilliantly. Mitch has tried hard to constrain this impeachment trial to the shortest time possible. He has given the House Democratic Managers 24 hours to prosecute their case. By my count, since these six amendments (so far) have increased the Managers’ floor time by six hours, which feels like a 25% increase in their podium time to explain the importance of certain evidence and/or testimony. We are learning facts about this case that the House Managers alone know and have’s comes into the public light until now. When you think about this, whomever on the Democratic team came up with this tactic is brilliant. Fighting procedural fire with more procedural fire is smart and it is not time-wasting nonsense as some White House brain-trust lawyers have claimed. This trial deserves yo be properly aired and Mitch has the ability to restrict some TV coverage of witnesses as well as overall podium time. This amendment trick helps with both directly since this portion of the trial is open for the public to see. Bravo to the Democratic Senate Floor Management.
It’s easy to see that Mitch is rattled by this. To begin with, its handing him a bundle of control loss, which he is not at all used to on the Senate floor. He looked very feeble when he suggested through the Chief Justice once the penny had dropped, that the Democrats stack all their amendments for a bulk vote. That backfired badly since it makes Mitch look impotent and it made clear to all that the Republican senators had no intention of giving impartial justice to these amendments. It was visible that Mitch was flummoxed as he called for a quorum check as a delay tactic to give himself time to consult with his team. For the first time I can recall, I was embarrassed for Mitch McConnell.
I had wanted to avoid depressing myself by watching the angels getting man-handled by the devils. I had found the one-sided preordained outcome a bit too much to stomach. Quite frankly, I was running away from reality. But it has warmed my heart to see the good guys stand and fight. It gave me even more pleasure watching Mitch run away from an unexpected broadside to his authority.