Bad Things

Democrats:  They came, they went and they debated again last night.  I have no idea if anything that any of the candidates said really matters to any voters. Notably, while they clearly disagree on the best way to fix the US medical care system, they all agree that any of their proposals would be better than the Republican plan to ditch Obamacare altogether.  As to that feud between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over whether or not he told her that a woman couldn’t win the presidency, the two did their best to appear collegial during the debate and, of course, Warren, who has a plan for everything also had a planned, but still witty response when she was asked about the Sanders comment.  She said “Look at the men on this stage, collectively, they have lost ten elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they've been in are the women. Amy and me.”  With little else to report, the press made a big deal about the fact that Warren did not shake Sanders offered hand at the end of the evening.  Whatever.      

Impeach, Impeach, Impeach:  The House is expected to vote to send the Articles of Impeachment over to the Senate later today.  Speaker Pelosi is expected to name her impeachment managers.  Though Pelosi’s gambit of holding out on releasing the Articles didn’t push Senate Leader McConnell to sway from his plans, he hasn’t released his game rules and still hasn’t committed to calling witnesses, her delay did provide added time for additional evidence in the form of wannabee witnesses such as former national security advisor John Bolton and documents from freedom of information act releases to surface.  To that end some really bigly stuff came out late yesterday when the House Intelligence Committee released a new batch of documents provided by Trump crony, Lev Parnas, the guy who appears in countless pictures alongside Trump who still claims not to know him.  Included in the dump is a photo of a May 10, 2019 letter from Rudy Giuliani to then Ukraine president-elect Zelensky in which Giuliani asks in his “capacity as personal counsel” to Trump and with his “knowledge and consent” for a meeting with Zelensky.  The documents also provide evidence that there was an understanding between then prosecutor general Lutsenko, that if he were to provide information on Burisma and the Bidens to Trump’s team, they would fire US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, whose anti-corruption activities were hampering Lutsenko’s power grabs and get rich quick schemes.   Most disturbing of all is a set of messages between Parnas and Robert Hyde, who is now a Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut.  Hyde texted Parnas that he had people in Ukraine tracking Yovanovitch’s movements.  He claimed he could tell whether her phone and computer were off, writing that “If you want her out they need to make contact with security forces.” Though it’s not clear if Hyde really had people monitoring Yovanovitch or whether or not he was prepared to follow through on arranging for her “removal,” it’s worth remembering that when Yovanovitch was pulled from Kiev, she was told to get out on the next flight as her safety was an issue and, that during their infamous, not so “perfect” July phone call Trump told Zelensky that Yovanovitch was going to “go through some bad things.”  Those words take on added meaning in light of the Hyde-Parnas texts especially when you consider that Trump’s bestie Vladimir Putin has a habit of arranging for the defenestration of his enemies.  

Getting back to impeachment, a number of Republican Senators are threatening to call their own witnesses if the Democrats manage to get enough votes to call one time national security advisor John Bolton or any of their other choices.  Most notably they want to call Hunter and Joe Biden, even though neither of them would have anything to say about the issues at hand, which have to do with Trump’s obstruction and abuse of power.  As to former national security advisors, late yesterday Trump’s first one, Michael Flynn who is due to be sentenced in two weeks, now wants to withdraw his guilty plea.  His claim is that prosecutors showed "bad faith, vindictiveness,” and “breached their plea agreement."   It’s far from clear  how his Judge who once suggested that Flynn was a traitor will respond to that but Flynn’s real objective may be to delay his sentencing in the hope that he can avoid any prison time via a Trump pardon.  One more impeachment thing, though White House Counsel Pat Cipollone  and Jay Sekulow are expected to lead Trump’s defense team, Alan Dershowitz, who has been tarnished by his association with Jeffrey Epstein and accusations of pedophilia, may serve as an advisor.  So far there’s no indication that Giuliani will be tapped despite how much he wants to be involved because even Trump has got to know that would be a really bad idea but then again, who knows what’s going to happen.  Sekulow’s name pops up in some of the Parnas memos and texts and he still has a role.

Et Cetera:  Democratic Senator Tim Kaine appears to have rounded up enough Republican Senators to pass a Senate War Powers resolution, one that would limit Trump’s ability to go to war with Iran without Congressional approval as Republican Senators Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Todd Young and Susan Collins have all signed on as co-sponsors.  Kaine believes that he may even have more Republican votes, not enough to override a Trump veto if it gets that far, but enough to send a message.   As to the now very dead General Soleimani, Attorney General Barr says it doesn’t really matter whether or not he had “imminent” plans to attack any US embassies, Trump was well within his rights to order him killed because that’s one of the many things that unitary presidents get to do.