One Week More

Impeach, Impeach:  Last night the House voted to push VP Pence to oust Trump via the 25^th Amendment.  Only Republican Adam Kinzinger joined them.  Before the vote, Pence sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi saying that while he would do everything he could to insure a smooth transition to the Biden administration, he had no intention of going the 25^th route because that’s not his thing and anyway what’s an attempted coup and a murder threat or two among friends.  Pence’s decision wasn’t a surprise, nor should Trump take any comfort in the fact that only Kinzinger sided with the Democrats as today the House plans to vote to impeach Trump and not only do they have the votes to do so, some more of those votes will come from Republicans.  In addition to Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, the third ranked Republican stated yesterday that she’ll be voting for impeachment “because a violent mob attacked the US Capitol…..and the president of the US summoned the mob assembled the mob, and lit the flame of the attack.”  Echoing the FBI and the DOJ who finally took to the podium yesterday albeit with only “B” team representation, Cheney also said “much more will come clear in coming days and weeks.”  In addition to Cheney and Kinzinger, Republican Reps John Katko and Fred Upton said that they’ll be voting for impeachment and Peter Meijer, who replaced Justin Amash, the one Republican who voted to impeach the first time around, said he’s leaning in that direction.  Another group of Republicans have come out in favor of censure and though he’s not in the impeachment camp, even GOP leader McCarthy has backed off, well just a little, from supporting Trump.  The bottom line is that Trump will be impeached, again, by the House today and the vote will be bipartisan.  Though Senate Leader McConnell initially said that he wouldn’t start the impeachment trial until right before Biden’s inauguration, citing an arcane provision soon to be Senate Leader Schumer is pressing the creepy Turtle to get moving sooner and it appears that McConnell, who the NY Times reports is secretly pro-impeachment and thrilled to move on from Trump, is leaning towards cooperation. The fact that McConnell could be team impeachment is bigly, even if he doesn’t vote to convict, his wink and a nod to his caucus will make it easier for some of them to go the conviction route and the number who might could approach twenty, though I’ll believe that when I see it.  While two thirds of the Senate would have to vote for conviction for Trump to be ousted, the two thirds refers to those who actually show up to vote so Trump could be convicted even if fewer than 67 vote him out making it likely that a number of Republicans will call in sick, conveniently concluding that they have to go into quarantine. It’s not just a conviction that the Democrats are seeking, they also want to make  sure that Trump can never run for another office again, and who doesn’t think that a number of those Republicans with presidential aspirations wouldn’t want to see that happen. 

Imperfection: Yesterday before Trump headed to Texas to celebrate the pathetic 40 miles of new wall constructed during his torturous four years in office, he attacked the Democrats for engaging in another witch hunt, said that “people say” his speech, the one where he incited the crowds to raid the Capitol, was “perfect.”  No contrition at all, just more encouragement to those deplorables who sadly aren’t done yet. On the deplorable front, NJ Democratic Congresswoman/former Navy Officer Mikie Sherill shared that she believes that a number of lawmakers led reconnaissance efforts on January 5th, providing some of their “constituents” guided tours through the Capitol halls, something that could explain how the attackers knew where to find the offices of some of Congressional leaders. Though she didn’t specify names, some of those possible collaborators could be Arizona Representatives Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, whose siblings have written a letter calling him a horrible person, and Alabama’s Mo Brooks.  The three were previously identified by one of the rally’s leaders as cooperators. Other possible abettors could be the crowd of Republicans who despite last week’s events and fears of future attacks refused to go through the metal detectors as they entered the Capitol yesterday.  Among those were Idaho’s Ross Fulcher,  Texas’ Van Taylor and Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, the Glock carrier who got into a standoff with Capitol police after her handbag triggered the metal detector alarm.  All of them ending up being admitted even though they failed to cooperate.  Suffice it to say their Democratic colleagues are furious.  Not a good look for either the Republican set or the Capitol police screeners since we’ve learned that though most of them acted bravely on January 6 some were criminally cozy with the marauders. 

Human Resources:  Though Ted Cruz is still in the Senate, his communications director resigned yesterday.  We also learned that Secretary of State Pompeo cut his European trip short after Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister and some EU officials refused to meet with him because they want nothing to do with anyone so closely associated with coup attempter Trump possibly because to paraphrase Russia expert Fiona Hill, who came to most of our attention during Trump’s first impeachment, even a failed coup attempt counts as a coup. And another Democrat, Illinois Representative Brad Schneider, who was sheltering in place with some of those Republican mask refusers, has tested COVID positive. Lastly, Trump has been told that not only is self-pardoning unconstitutional, but that it would expose him to more liability and that he’s so upset about that last tidbit that he might not deliver on those other pardons he’s promised because if he goes down he wants company.  Frankly, I think he’ll still go the pardon route because when was the last time he took advice?     

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