Teresa Hanafin of the Boston Globe raises an interesting point that I have not seen anywhere else?
In the Senate trial of Trump, Mitch McConnell is coordinating his actions with Trump and his counsel. Is this appropriate? Does it show impartiality?
She writes:
“Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to quash Trump’s desire to go full Apprentice with the trial in the Senate, calling as witnesses everyone from Hunter Biden to Omarosa. McConnell is in cahoots with the White House over how the trial will proceed. “In total coordination with White House counsel,” is how he phrased it on Fox News.
”Presumably he will cross his fingers behind his back when he and the rest of the senators are sworn in as jurors, taking what is supposed to be a solemn oath to be unbiased.
”I solemnly swear … that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of [Donald J. Trump], now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.
”I was on a jury once and I guess I missed the part where I was supposed to coordinate things with the lawyer for the defendant.”
This will be a Trumpian trial: rigged for his benefit.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Too bad the Senate trial does not follow the same procedure for a real trial where the lawyers for both sides get a chance to eliminate as many jurors as they can that might be biased.
In a real trial, to end up with one jury, the lawers sometimes go through more than a hundred people called for jury duty.
For the past several decades, Republican behavior has ignored evidence from environmental to social to justice to foreign policy to voting rights. What’s new is the ripping away of any pretense about honesty or integrity. Now, it is full bore instrumentalism on behalf of the wealthy. It is bare racism, xenophobia, religious bigotry, and homophobia without any patina of respectability. Anything goes is their mantra. Democracy and decency are easily dispensed inconveniences. The demons have free reign.
Harsh but true. McConnell true colors blare here: he bets the viability of his party, but far worse of democracy itself in his choice to velcro himself to the executive branch, denying the constitutional role of oversight by co-equal branch. That Rep senators follow his lead like sheep shows it’s a long-done deal ¬ just about majority leader.
I heard about this collusion last night, not on Fox News, but on others, including MSNBC where exhausted commentators with law degrees pointed out that Mitch’s “coordination” with the White House on the Senate treatment of the Impeachment was ANOTHER case of ignoring the separation of powers.
I think this point has been lost of a public too busy to watch the non-stop Impeachment Show and with a press rushing to cover the success of Boris and pending acceleration of Brexit.
Many of the retirees who call in daily to the 3-hr long CSPAN Wash Jnl show watch every stitch of the hearings, but what they glean varies w/their ed, perception, bias. The show covered this & other breaches amply & even has discussions w/experts in law etc, on such points, but there are a lot of deaf ears out there. Some of the Rep callers-in think more than others– they are the ones who are buoyed by economic indicators – but most seem to take it all as a slam on their ‘underdog’ prez & their values- I think older Reps are infected w/that bitter underdog attitude even tho their elected reps have been running their states for yrs & they’ve captured most of the fed govt.
I must say that I do not recall the behavior of the senate when the Democratic-led senate refused to remove Bill Clinton from office for his personal vices and coverups. What I do know is that the two party system itself erodes some of the checks and balances devised by the founding fathers.
Further erosion of the power of the legislative branch will now be assured by a supreme court that was already so partisan as to assure the election of Bush over Gore with quick and partisan dispatch…and that was before the present lurch to the far right. Remember that the Chief Justice sits as the judge during this trial.
It strikes me that the time for the two party system is past. Labor’s bellyflop in Great Britain yesterday suggests that their system is not capable of managing serious mis-information campaigns.
All of this points to my belief that the democrats should have pursued a censure vote. It would of course, have lacked teeth. This way the democrats could have campaigned on the idea that the republicans were not even willing to say that what Trump did was wrong. Now they are able to claim that he did nothing wrong but was the victim of an improper investigation. I think Trump will come out of this claiming vindication before a public tired of the wrangling.
I disagree. Trump will wear the big letter I in the history books. He deserves it.
I will consider that. Does Clinton wear the scarlet I? Is he reviled? Is this a fair comparison? History is a fickle memory.
Yes. Clinton will be in the history books as the second president to be impeached.
Trump joins him as the third.
Clinton’s impeachment:
“On February 9, after voting against a public deliberation on the verdict, the Senate began closed-door deliberations instead. On February 12, the Senate emerged from its closed deliberations and voted on the articles of impeachment. A two-thirds vote, 67 votes, would have been necessary to convict and remove the President from office. The perjury charge was defeated with 45 votes for conviction and 55 against, and the obstruction of justice charge was defeated with 50 for conviction and 50 against.[3][33][34] Senator Arlen Specter voted “not proved”[b] for both charges,[35] which was considered by Chief Justice Rehnquist to constitute a vote of “not guilty”. All 45 Democrats in the Senate voted “not guilty” on both charges, as did five Republicans; they were joined by five additional Republicans in voting “not guilty” on the perjury charge.
Even some of the Republicans felt what Clinton’s alleged crimes were not enough to find him guilty and fire him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton#Verdict
The Republicans held the majority in the Senate trial with 55 GOP senators vs 45 Democratic.
The not-guilty vote for Article One was 55 to 45
The not-guilty vote for Article Two was 50 to 50
“Clinton’s case there were accusations of infidelity that arose during his 1992 campaign. ‘And notwithstanding that,” Riley says, “in a moment of weakness, he engages in inappropriate behavior with a White House employee.’
“For Trump, it was foreign influence, and allegations of contact between his 2016 campaign and Russia, and then the consequential phone call with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.”
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/06/784721754/president-clinton-was-impeached-21-years-ago-some-parallels-run-deep
The Clinton Impeachment started in 1992 and focused on TheWhitewater Development Corp.
Fast forward to February 1997
Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel investigating the Whitewater scandal, announces he will step down from the investigation. He then changes his mind and continues his investigations.
Then since Whitewater didn’t come up with any evidence of a crime by the Clinton’s. Starr moved to the sex thing. Dirt, dirt, any dirt will do.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/1998/nov/18/clinton.usa
“Whatever similarities exist between Trump and Clinton, they are minor compared to the differences in American political culture between the two times. Twenty-one years isn’t that long along, but in important respects it is very far away.” …
“Compare Clinton’s mild words of protest with—to pick almost at random from hundreds of ready examples—Trump’s description this week of House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff. ‘I think he’s a maniac. Adam Schiff is a deranged human being. I think he grew up with a complex for lots of reasons that are obvious. I think he is a very sick man. And he lies.'” …
“Another example worth pondering: Clinton did indeed embrace the impropriety of his behavior, just disputed the impeachable nature of it, and Democrats were not blithely tolerant, much less supportive of it.” ,,,
“This is the profound difference between Clinton and Trump. While Clinton’s critics delighted in calling him ‘shameless,’ the evidence is abundant that regret and self-rebuke echoed within him often during his year of impeachment.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/12/05/donald-trump-impeachment-bill-clinton-075823
Jabba the Trump, who made up and displayed at Mar-a-Lago a fake Time Magazine cover showing himself as Man of the Year, had to, of course, belch out a tweet yesterday attacking Greta Thunberg, who was actually named Person of the Year. OF COURSE HE DID. Of course he had to show just what sort of callow, creepy, ignorant, disgusting, self-absorbed subhuman he is. Private Bone Spurs, attacker of teenagers. And ofc, to this pathological narcissist, everything is about him.
I read a story not long ago about a guy and his son who were pressured into playing a round of golf with Trump. At one point, IQ45 hit his ball into the weeds, whereas the boy playing with them hit a nice shot down the fairway. Trump, of course, played the boy’s ball.
This is the level of person we have in the Whiter House! A deeply sick, vile embarrassment to his country.
Yes,. His fragile ego and science denying mindset required him to say unkind things to Greta. Bob has more adjectives at the ready than I do, but I’ll settle for disgusting scum on this one. Trump is said to be taking the Impeachment as a personal attack just like any other criticism but worse because it will be in history books.
This is the man, if you can use the term to refer to Trumpty Dumpty, who has repeatedly said that his own face should be on Mt. Rushmore. Appropriate, I suppose, given the theft of sacred native land for construction of that monument, carved by a professed fascist.
Trump is the tribune of the D student. They applaud his sadistic attacks on the nerds like Greta. His followers are the Calibans in the back of the classroom who launched spitballs at the kids who actually cared about knowledge and reason.
Lord, Ponderosa, that’s perfect.
https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/2019/05/09/donnie-baby/
“Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) on Friday called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to recuse himself from the Senate impeachment trial, citing the GOP leader’s remarks the previous night about coordinating with the White House.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/474487-rep-demings-senator-mcconnell-violated-oath-must-recuse-himself?__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true&__twitter_impression=true
I don’t understand why the Republicans are so set in protecting Trump. The evidence is there yet they keep on saying it is a nothing burger. What does Trump have on these guys?
History will remember the collaborators with this vile traitor. Don the Con’s misadministration and his career previous to this both smell to high heaven, like the house of a murderer who has corpses under the floorboards. Does anyone really doubt that Vlad’s Asset Orange, aka Moscow’s Asset Governing America (MAGA), has been a Russian action figure in Putin’s private collection for a long, long time? If there is anyone in our intelligence services who still does, we shouldn’t be referring to him or her using the term “intelligence.” And “Moscow Mitch” has shown, lately, that he well deserves that moniker. He has also shown that he has complete disregard for democratic political and judicial norms. Something he learned from his master, Dumbo Trumpo.
Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so, ad infinitum.
And the great fleas, themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
–Augustus De Morgan
In other words, the White House will run the trial of the President.
ROFLMAO. Yup. That’s what he said. Let’s give up any pretense of being a democracy or a nation of laws. It’s good to be king.
Six wives, he had, the Eighth King Henry,
Trump had but three, we’re told, but when he
Was twixt and between those he made such a show of
Perhaps he swallowed some three we don’t know of.
Slight revision:
Six wives, had he, the eighth King Henry,
Trump had but three, we’re told, but when he
Was twixt and between those he made a great show of
Perhaps he swallowed some three we don’t know of.
I disagree with the commentator who wrote that the House should merely have censured Trump. The offenses committed by the President merit impeachment. So the House has a duty to impeach, even if the end result is to help the President’s chances at the ballot box. Whether it is is politically expedient to impeach the President is not relevant.
Emphatically agreed
yep. That is the only reason to impeach. Because it is the right thing to do.
So glad the Dems aren’t listening to the “experts” who tell them they shouldn’t endanger their chances by impeaching Trump.
Do the right thing. It doesn’t matter whether doing the right thing is popular or unpopular. Impeaching Trump is taking a stand that in America, no person, even the US President, is above the law. And that belief was enshrined in the Constitution and is the absolute foundation of our democracy. Without it we are simply Putin’s Russia.
The experts are wrong. It’s all about turnout. If the Dems turn out, they win.Show this creep for what he is. Galvanize the base.
I appreciate those who voiced disagreement with my censure idea. I would, however, like to defend the idea a bit. Censure ended the career of Joe McCarthy, who had appeared unstoppable until the senate agreed he was despicable. I know we have a different equation now, but maybe it would work. At least democrats could claim their opponents would not even censure a common criminal.
RT,
Trump will be impeached by the House. He invited foreign interference in the next election, for his benefit. If that is not impeachable, nothing is.
Exactly
I completely agree that what he did was impeachable. It seemed to me that the Muller Report included several obvious impeachable offenses. The fact is that almost all modern presidents have committed great numbers of such offenses in modern times. The most egregious I can recall was the Iran-contra affair.
I hope this impeachment works politically. It has no chance of working practically, because the senate will vote not to remove. I hope this does not create a false impression of innocence among voters who might be swayed to vote against trump. Without any chance that republicans will behave as honest representatives of democracy, we can only hope this is a good thing when the polls open in2020.
In addition, if what I read today is how the Senate trial will be conducted, one or more representatives from the House will show up to prosecute Trump in the Senate.
The 100 members of the Senate will be the jury. The judge will be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts.
Roberts’ job will be to umpire the trial in the Senate to ensure it follows proper court procedure.
That means if Trump takes the stand, whoever prosecutes Trump from the House will have their chance to question him and Moscow Mitch and his cronies should not be allowed to block the prosecution’s questions if Roberts is impartial, fair, and follows proper court procedure.
If Roberts does his job as the judge, the odds favor that the House prosecutors will reveal his lies and set Trump up for another Impeachwement process starting in the House.
I also read last week that there is no Constitutional limit on how many times a president can be impeached.
But what led up to the U.S. Senate condemning McCarthy?
“In a dramatic confrontation, Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether communism has infiltrated the U.S. armed forces. Welch’s verbal assault marked the end of McCarthy’s power during the anticommunist hysteria of the Red Scare in America.” …
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.” It was then McCarthy’s turn to be stunned into silence, as Welch asked, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” The audience of citizens and newspaper and television reporters burst into wild applause. Just a week later, the hearings into the Army came to a close. McCarthy, exposed as a reckless bully, was officially condemned by the U.S. Senate for contempt against his colleagues in December 1954. During the next two-and-a-half years McCarthy spiraled into alcoholism. Still in office, he died in 1957.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joseph-mccarthy-meets-his-match
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.
Trump is – clearly – the Traitor-in-Chief, and he is being aided and abetted by almost the entirety of the Republican Party, which has now become a clear and present danger to the Constitution and the Republic.
Anyone still supporting Trump or voting for a Republican is a traitor to the core democratic values on which this nation is based.
I have swritten about this from the moment I heard Moscow Mitch pitch his plans. Here is more about Him… he needs to be impeached!
McConnell has earned the nickname “Moscow Mitch” because he’s doing exactly what Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump want him to do – leave America vulnerable to another Putin-supported victory for Trump.
And the Award for ‘Most Dangerous Politician in My Lifetime’ Goes to… – LA Progressive https://www.laprogressive.com/moscow-mitch-must-go/?utm_source=LA+Progressive+NEW&utm_campaign=77d0bdd061-LAP_News_4_15_April_17_PC4_15_2017_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_61288e16ef-77d0bdd061-286983695&mc_cid=77d0bdd061&mc_eid=89923fe117
He’s maybe the most dangerous politician of my lifetime. He’s helped transform the Republican Party into a cult, worshiping at the altar of authoritarianism. He’s damaged our country in ways that may take a generation to undo. The politician I’m talking about, of course, is Mitch McConnell.
Two goals for November 3, 2020: The first and most obvious is to get the worst president in history out of the White House. That’s necessary but not sufficient. We also have to flip the Senate and remove the worst Senate Majority Leader in history.
Like Trump, Mitch McConnell is no garden-variety bad public official. McConnell puts party above America, and Trump above party. Even if Trump is gone, if the Senate remains in Republican hands and McConnell is reelected, America loses because McConnell will still have a chokehold on our democracy.
Even if Trump is gone, if the Senate remains in Republican hands and McConnell is reelected, America loses because McConnell will still have a chokehold on our democracy.
This is the man who refused for almost a year to allow the Senate to consider President Obama’s moderate Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland.
And then, when Trump became president, this is the man who got rid of the age-old Senate rule requiring 60 Senators to agree on a Supreme Court nomination so he could ram through not one but two Supreme Court justices, including one with a likely history of sexual assault.
This is the man who rushed through the Senate, without a single hearing, a $2 trillion tax cut for big corporations and wealthy Americans – a tax cut that raised the government debt by almost the same amount, generated no new investment, failed to raise wages, but gave the stock market a temporary sugar high because most corporations used the tax savings to buy back their own shares of stock.
McConnell refuses to support what’s needed for comprehensive election security – although both the U.S. intelligence community and Special Prosecutor Mueller say Moscow is continuing to hack into our voting machines and to weaponize disinformation through social media.
McConnell is also blocking bipartisan background-check legislation for gun sales, even after the mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, El Paso and Odessa, Texas.
So even if Trump is out of the White House, if McConnell remains Senate Majority Leader he will not allow a Democratic president to govern.
He won’t allow debate or votes on Medicare for All, universal pre-K, a wealth tax, student loan forgiveness, or the Green New Deal. He won’t allow confirmation votes on judges nominated by a Democratic president.
The good news is McConnell is the least popular senator in the country with his own constituents. He’s repeatedly sacrificed Kentucky to Trump’s agenda – for example, agreeing to Trump’s so-called emergency funding for a border wall, which would take $63 million away from projects like a new middle school on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee.
McConnell is even cut funding for black lung disease suffered by Kentucky coal miners. I know from my years as labor secretary that coal mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, and the number of cases of incurable black lung disease has been on the rise. But when a group of miners took a 10-hour bus ride to Washington this past summer to ask McConnell to restore the funding, McConnell met with them for one minute and then refused to help them. No wonder Democrats are lining up in Kentucky to run against Moscow Mitch in 2020.
The not-so-good news is that McConnell is up for re-election the same day as Donald Trump, and Trump did well in Kentucky in 2016. Which means we have to help organize Kentucky, just as we have to organize other states that may not be swing states in the presidential election but could take back the Senate.
Consider Georgia: Republican Senator Johnny Isakson is retiring, meaning both of Georgia’s Senate seats are now up for grabs. And this one extra seat—in a state that is trending blue—could be the tipping point that allows Democrats to win enough seats to end GOP control of the Senate.
Trump has to go, but so does McConnell.
Here’s what you can do: Wherever you are in the country, you can donate to McConnell’s challengers. If you live in or near Kentucky, you can get out and knock doors or make calls. Or if you have friends or family in the state, encourage them to get involved.
As to the question of who is worse, Trump or McConnell — the answer is that it’s too close to call. The two of them have degraded and corrupted American democracy. We need them both out.
Trump and McConnel deserve each other.
Let’s package them tightly inside one undersized shared coffin and then ship them alive through a black hole to an alternate universe.
Then implode that black hole so the inhabitants on the other side do not cross over to our side to get even with us.