Impeachment II: Republican Boogaloo

Now that trump is out of office and can no longer be of benefit to him, McConnell is using "legaleze" to distance himself from trump while simultaneously refusing to accept personal responsibility.

 

We were well past that when he decided to hold up Obama's SCOTUS pick for ten months and cram ACB into Ginsberg's seat in less than a month before the election

 

"Republican senators are shrinking from doing justice in the impeachment trial because they are afraid of Trump and his supporters."

 

interesting opinion by Mr. Frum but perhaps those Senators know the impeachment trial will be DOA political theater and don't want any part of it.
More & more evidence is being revealed that the Capitol debacle was pre-planned and at least semi-organized. Also the bad actors split away from the larger crowd of peaceful protestors before Trump even finished speaking. Thus it's extremely likely that the Capitol attack would have occurred no matter what Trump would have said. Thus days ago Biden even said the impeachment trial would likely not be successful, but he still thinks they should go through the motions to promote healing, justice, confidence in the system, etc. But it is great entertainment and I am looking forward to the four year full-blown circus that awaits.
But hey, spin it whatever way makes you feel better Corky!

 

Mona Charen (of all people) did a great job of putting this whole mess in perspective.
I have never been happier with a vote. It’s not because I think I’ve made “new friends.” Nor is it because I think Joe Biden will pursue a policy agenda I will agree with most of the time. It’s because we just came within a whisker of losing our democracy, and this presidency is a chance to rebuild it.
My correspondents won’t understand this. Might as well be speaking Pashto. Rightworld is in the process, once again, of bending reality to serve their leader, and in so doing, they are compounding the moral abdication that brought us January 6.
The immediate reactions to the attempted coup sound strangely mature and responsible now that the right has regrouped and settled back into its accustomed posture of Trump-excusing. The new narrative is that an impeachment trial would be 1) unconstitutional, 2) divisive, or 3) helpful to Trump because it gives him a platform. How quickly they have capitulated. It’s a mistake in this febrile era ever to assume you’ve taken the national temperature.

 

Republicans gonna Republican. A conviction ain't gonna happen.

 

Interesting. In the hours after the Capitol attack I seem to remember you saying that Trump had gone too far this time and that you would never vote for him again (even if he gets the 2024 nomination). Has your opinion of him changed again?

 

This headline definitely needs a "Part II"...

 

Red herring. Trump had already urged them to march on the Capitol and "show your strength" by that point, according to the NYT timeline.

If I urge a crowd to lynch someone and he's dangling from the tree, I've incited a lynching. The fact they couldn't wait through my remaining rendition of Smooth Jazz might be considered impolite, but doesn't let me off the hook.

 

Well if you "seem to remember" then put in the work to see if I said that. If I said "Trump has gone too far" I'll act like a typical lib (y'all have a great playbook) and say that you took what I said out of context, or you are too stupid to comprehend what I said. I probably did say that despite the great things he did, he was acting unhinged towards the end. But you are right in that I wouldn't vote for Trump again - he's too old and while he had a good run he was running out of steam - there is too much young talent out there waiting for a chance to shine.

That said the Democrats have a pathetically weak case for impeachment conviction. It seems (I can't read minds) that most of the Democrats & some Republicans want to ensure that Trump can't run again, with a side order of revenge and vitriol. Of course they are fear mongering and want to play themselves up as being the bastions of caring about & saving democracy, which is an obvious ploy to keep control & power. I don't blame them, since they have control over all facets of the highest level of the federal government they better strike while the iron is hot. We ain't seen nothin' yet as the saying goes.

 

Oh fuck! If the NYT said it then it's a done deal. And "march to the Capitol" means "forcefully enter The Capitol and cause violent mayhem" obviously. Again, spin it how you want to. To be honest I'm sick of hearing about Trump. He's not HMIC and he never will be again. We as a nation need to get back to coddling & praising Biden until we switch to coddling & praising Harris.

 

No, the GOP and we as a nation need to send a message that weakening democracy is not an option for leaders, especially the HMIC, so it doesn't happen again.

 

In any case, the GOP is making it pretty clear right now that there is no scenario whatsoever in which they would agree to convict a Republican president.

And they all know very well that if a Democratic president had lied to the country for 2 months to try to steal the election, had made the phone call that Trump did to try to change the results in GA, had incited people to "stop the steal" and do something on January 6, they would be the first to scream for him to be convicted. So they know very well what guilt is. They simply are making it very clear that "what is good for the GOP" comes before honesty and the good of the country.

 

Oh look, Susan Collins is not in favor of impeachment. Soooo surprising that she toed the party line that quickly. I never would have pegged her for the partisan type. Pfft.

As if I needed another reason to be ashamed of Maine.

 

You have diac.

 

Pegged, heh.
She must like her dildo white like a sheet.

 

Don't you think, in those alternate circumstances, the dems would be the ones mitigating the facts and refusing to convict?

 

And they would be wrong if they did.

 

I’d add, further, that “both sides do it” has never made ANYTHING okay. Wrong is wrong and right is right. The end.

 

But whatabout--

No, OF

 

Probably. That's part of why I don't really trust the Democrats, either.

But that blatant attempt at "whataboutism" does not in any way make the Republicans less guilty or corrupt. Anyone who justifies their corruption by saying: "But the others are just as corrupt" shows that they don't really have moral values, but are only trying to seek their own advantage.

 

I mean, we all know they impeached Clinton over far, far less.

In retrospect, Clinton did abuse his power and his affair with an intern barely older than his own daughter was gross, but it's safe to say between Trump and Kavanaugh that the GOP doesn't care about victims of sex crimes unless they can be used as a weapon against their opponents. I'm genuinely surprised they didn't go down the Tara Reade rabbit hole to put a further wedge between center-left and leftists.

 

You misinterpret - I ask because I AGREE it's wrong for ANYone to do. What you mistakenly call whataboutism is often someone calling out one "side" being hypocritical by complaining about the other "side" doing something they'd do too, when it's wrong for anyone to do.

 

Possibly, however in the past few years looking at how the Dems treated people on their side like Al Franken does suggest they are more willing to do what is right than the Republicans.

 

The hypocritical part is when one side is fine with the issue when it suits their purposes.

I wasn't paying much attention to your posts, but weren't you fine with pushing Amy Coney Barrett through to the Supreme Court? And also fine with blocking Garland?

 

Glad to hear it. You had me wondering if you had gone into Oldfella territory.

I find it extremely hypocritical that so many on both sides will take exactly opposite positions, depending on who benefits. Ted Cruz, for example, tries to come across as such a fine Christian man, just interested in justice and the good of the country. But if Obama had done what Trump did, Cruz would have been leading the pack to have him removed from office ASAP, if not before.

 

so isn't increasing authoritarianism actually weakening democracy? Asking for a friend.

 

that is so cute.....

 

Yes it, is Adolf. Did you have a point?