Shock and Yawn
I stayed up to watch the Judiciary Committee hearing on Impeachment, which was into its fourteenth hour. It had all become a yawn on both sides of the aisle with Democrats, one-after-another, feeling the need to outline the efforts of Donald Trump to undermine democracy, while the Republicans made their arguments about how there was no evidence of any crime. The one side says the evidence is overwhelming while the other says there is no evidence whatsoever. That’s quite a divide in perspective. Each team has at least one constitutional lawyer in its ranks and they both speak very eloquently about the strength of their respective positions. Mind boggling stuff.
The hearing ended abruptly as Chairman Nadler decided that 11:15pm was not the appropriate time to hold a final vote on the articles of Impeachment. He did not feel that a “midnight” Impeachment served the image of gravitas that such a vote entails. His abrupt closure of the hearing was a surprise to all, but none less than the Ranking Minority Member Doug Collins, who was appalled that such a maneuver would be pulled without consulting him. For three years these committees have shifted from bully Republican Chairmen to bully Democrat Chairmen. Ranking Minority Members hang on for dear life as the juggernaut goes off in its partisan direction. To listen to Collins in his post-hearing press comments where he accused Nadler of making a play for prime-time news coverage in the morning (kind of ironic when he’s in front of the cameras), you would think that this was the worst offense any Chairman could inflict. The fact that Republicans jammed up the hearing with silly, unwinnable amendments until the wee hours didn’t figure into Ranking Minority Member indignation. How dare Nadler outwit Collins when he thought he had won the game of the clock? Shocking!
Conservatives now advocate tax policy that ignores balanced budgets and growing deficits. They believe cozying up to Russia is a good thing in its thuggish capitalism. Meanwhile, Democrats no longer represent the mainstream working man, but rather the bi-coastal liberal elite. They advocate for progressive policies that are deemed to border on outright Socialism. Somehow that all seems more shocking to me. The citizens of England have surely voted their collective minds and pushed the progressive agenda off the table, so perhaps there’s a lesson in all that for the U.S.
What’s worse than watching hours and hours of Impeachment hearings and reading over one hundred Presidential tweets in a day? Doing it all when the conclusion of the removal trial in the Senate in January is foregone. Acquittal is not in question just as Impeachment is not avoidable at this point. Why does the Kabuki of shock and awe by members of Congress about either outcome have any currency in the public domain at this stage? I guess there are some people who may just now be tuning in and they need to see the extremities of the positions, but that seems like playing to the lowest common denominator.
There is now a debate about whether this Impeachment process is better served by a speedy conclusion or a long drawn out process that seeks all the testimony from the officials like Pompeo, Mulvaney, Bolton and Giuliani. Democrats have been uneasy about taking the longer path because they seem to think it detracts from their electoral campaigns for 2020. It has served the Republican narrative to say the Democrat process is slapdash and should slow down to get all the testimony. I see it as quite possible to see these views do a complete 180 with the Democrats deciding to slow down the process while the Republicans cry foul and realize that a drawn-out process (as Trump himself wants) may not be as good for them as they thought. One thing that has proven true so far is that giving Trump rope serves him less well than it serves the hangman. Wouldn’t that all be a fine show for us here at home?
I am writing this on Friday morning and don’t expect this to be published until Monday morning, so it will be interesting to see what happens between now and then.
There is a good part of me that hopes that the Democrats decide it is better to switch it up and play the long ball. If this Impeachment process gets tossed into the Senate for January adjudication, I suspect it will be long forgotten by the time the election rolls in. I somehow feel that it is a travesty that Pompeo, Bolton, Mulvaney and Giuliani are not required to testify. I would also like to see Barr get called to bear witness. Why should they get a pass on their obligation to either tell the truth or risk perjury in front of Congress and the American people? My guiding light about all that is that I am certain none of them want this dilemma to be visited on them and that alone makes it more appropriate that it happen. I want them each to face up to what has been attributed to them or, in the case of Mulvaney, to face questioning about that ill-fated press conference where he directly implicated himself and his boss. It seems only fair that they all pay the price of the “greatness” they have assumed by being close to the throne of power. I have little doubt that Giuliani will try to hide behind attorney/client privilege. I have equally little doubt that Pompeo and Barr are in for a penny, in for a pound and might find some way to slither out from under the burden of directly perjuring themselves. But I suspect that Bolton and Mulvaney will sing. Bolton will sing because he’s a tough guy who does not fear Trump. Mulvaney will sing because he is the exact opposite and cannot stand the thought of a conviction leading to prison.
I give it modest odd that the Democrats will take the route I hope they do. I have come to learn that the motivations of all of these players varies in ways that are impossible to predict. What I do feel comfortable in predicting with high confidence is that Trump will do things that continue to shock us, uncovered facts will continue to shock us, the stridency of Congress (especially Republicans) will continue to shock us, the divisiveness of the electorate will continue to disappoint and perhaps shock us, and the process will have entire periods where we will all yawn for hours on end as the wheels of political progress grind their way through this morass.
