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Impeached:  Trump who was impeached yesterday is finally a member of a really select club, just not the one he wanted to join.  Unfortunately when not in Mar a Lago or one of his other golf resorts he still resides in the White House and is unlikely to lose that Pennsylvania Avenue address anytime soon  There was lots of speechifying, some of it somber, a lot of it downright ridiculous and some of it very ignorant.  There were those who quoted the Bible, and there were those who said that impeaching Trump was a disaster akin to Pearl Harbor. On the religious front, one Republican, Georgia’s Barry Loudermilk, called impeaching Trump worse than crucifying Jesus. And then there was the “genius” who said that if Trump was removed from office the Republicans would have to retaliate by impeaching his replacement, leaving it to Democrat Jerry Nadler to interject that VP Pence, rather than Hillary Clinton, would be that replacement. Far too many hours after the process started the final vote was taken.  On the first article, abuse of power,  230 voted yes, 197 voted no and 1 voted present.  On the second article, obstruction of Congress, 229 voted yes, 198 voted no and 1 voted present. All but one of the yes votes were cast by Democrats with the remaining yes cast by Independent Justin Amash.  Three members, one Democrat and two Republican did not vote at all. That Democrat was New York’s Jose Serrano who is currently recovering from a serious fall, am not sure about the Republican non-voters but the Republicans who voted all voted against impeachment.  On the Democratic side,  Jared Golden of Maine sat on the fence, voting yes for abuse of power but against obstruction of Congress.  Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, the Democrat who is now a Republican sat with his new comrades and voted no for both articles and Collin Peterson of Minnesota who is still a Democrat also voted no.  There were no reports on where Peterson sat or if anyone invited him out for post vote drinks.  Then there’s Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaiian Democrat who is still running for President, she voted present acknowledging that Trump is guilty of wrongdoing but saying she couldn’t vote for impeachment because the “process was partisan and fueled by tribal animosities.” Hard to disagree with her tribal animosity comment but it’s highly likely that her vote was more about raising eyebrows and garnering attention than protesting pow wows. After the vote was over Speaker Pelosi swiped her hand in the air and glared sternly, making it clear to her caucus that they should refrain from showing any glee.  She also  remained vague about when she might send the articles of impeachment to the Senate saying she couldn’t appoint her impeachment managers until she knew more about the Senate’s trial rules. Pelosi appears to be trying to use the threat of delaying the next stage of the impeachment process as leverage to force Senate leader McConnell to permit some witnesses.  Unfortunately, it’s not clear that her tactics will work.  McConnell has already said that he is not “an impartial juror” and there’s no reason to think that he’ll start acting like one now.    

Dinging Dingell: White House Press Secretary Grisham insisted that Trump was too busy doing his day job to pay much attention to the impeachment vote but we know that was just more bunk because he tweeted about impeachment all day before leaving for another one of his campaign speeches, this one in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he continued to attack the Democrats, the impeachment and his target for the day Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell whose recently departed husband, John Dingell served in the seat she currently occupies for 59 years.  Apparently Trump was angry that she voted for impeachment because by his twisted standards she owed him one for lowering the flag to commemorate her husband’s death.  He snidely suggested that John Dingell was looking up at her from hell, leaving the Congresswoman to reply “Mr. President, let’s set politics aside. My husband earned all his accolades after a lifetime of service. I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder.”  To Trump cruelty is the point.

Health Care?  With the labor dispute at California’s Loyola-Marymount University resolved, tonight’s Democratic debate is back on the schedule and given yesterday’s news, the dueling Democrats will have even more to discuss on the heath care front.  Yesterday a federal appeals court found the Affordable Care Act's (Obamacare’s) individual mandate unconstitutional.  However since the court did not invalidate the entire law Obamacare remains in effect for now. The judges sent the case back down to the lower court to consider whether the individual mandate can be separated from the rest of the law. To be clear Obamacare’s future and things like the coverage of pre- existing conditions are still in jeopardy, the Appeals Court’s ruling just pushes any Supreme Court action off until after the 2020 election. Though the Democratic candidates will have a lot to discuss tonight, like whether or not it was okay for Mayor Pete to have worked for the McKinsey consulting firm (spoiler alert, it was), they should also remind the audience that the Republicans are the ones trying to kill Obamacare and have no replacement in mind.

  

Human Resources:  North Carolina’s Freedom Caucus Congressman Mark Meadows, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, revealed this morning that he will not be seeking reelection but that he will be sticking with Team Trump in some other capacity to be disclosed at some future date.  Maybe that Chief of Staff spot currently occupied by Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney will be opening up soon? The announcement of Meadows decision was pushed forward by his state’s early candidate filing date.  Though Meadows joins a long and growing list of mostly Republicans bailing from Congress, his seat will likely remain in Republican hands.  Bill Taylor, the highly respected and experienced acting Ambassador to Ukraine who had been appointed upon the recommendation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to serve as  the “temporary” filler for the much besmirched Maria Yovanovitch after she was fired at the urging of Rudy Giuliani, is out.  He was scheduled to step down soon but was asked to get out of Kiev a few days early so that he’d be gone before Pompeo’s scheduled visit to the country.  According to the Wall Street Journal Pompeo wants to make sure that the two don’t get photographed together because that would really infuriate his dear leader.  By the way, Pompeo is still seriously considering running for the Kansas Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Pat Roberts and to do so, he’ll need Trump’s full support.