House Dems All Jumping On Impeachment Train Like 'CHOO CHOO, MOTHERF*CKER!'

More than half of House Democrats now support impeachment, despite whatever Pelosi says. Or is it BECAUSE of what Pelosi said?

After the Robert Mueller hearings, the media told us they were very boring and Robert Mueller was 300 years old and that it pained them to say this, truly they just agonized over it, but the Democrats' momentum for impeachment was deader than a doornail in the water at a cemetery where all the dead things go. Womp womp . The media knew this because Robert Mueller failed to wear any funny costumes, and also neglected to have a John Dean "hey, wanna see the Enemies List?" moment. Moreover, Mueller failed to perform at least one (1) trapeze routine in the style of P!nk, and that is just not how congressional testimonies in times of national peril work, OK? You have to do the trapeze routine. How else do you expect to keep Chuck Todd giggling and clapping his hands?

But then the weirdest thing happened. As Congress moved into its August recess, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler let the cat out of the bag that actually they're already considering articles of impeachment, Nancy Pelosi gave her caucus permission to support an impeachment inquiry if they feel they need to do that (do NOT underestimate how important that one single move was) and whaddya know, Democrats started announcing their support for impeachment faster than Republicans announcing they're retiring in 2020. It's almost like the Dems wanted Robert Mueller's testimony about the president's many crimes in the congressional record before they officially said yes to the impeachment dress.

As of today, more than half of the House Democratic caucus supports an impeachment inquiry. That's 118 out of 235, as of this writing, with Ted Deutch of Florida being number 118. The new impeachers who have announced in the past couple days have been significant for a couple of reasons. Eliot Engel is the powerful chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and he's been in Congress so long that babies born the day he was sworn in are now 30 years old. He is the epitome of slow and steady. As Politico notes, he joins Maxine Waters and Jerry Nadler as folks who have advocated for an impeachment inquiry. (Waters has been saying it out loud forever, while Nadler has mostly been advocating it directly to Pelosi.) Meanwhile, freshman Democrats from swing districts are starting to jump onboard, like Jennifer Wexton of Virginia and Jason Crow of Colorado. (Told you Pelosi's permission mattered.)

Politico's sources in the impeachment-happy section of Congress say there are a couple more people we need to watch:

The lawmakers quietly working to organize support for Trump's impeachment said there are two important figures to watch in the coming weeks. Assistant speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who is running for an open Senate seat against a primary opponent who has embraced impeachment proceedings, and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights icon who has questioned the legitimacy of Trump's election but so far deferred to Pelosi on impeachment.

You heard it here first, because you don't read Politico, which further notes that Luján was instrumental in getting a lot of those freshman Dems elected, and that Lewis has the power to move the Congressional Black Caucus. So yes, they're pretty important.

One thing we definitely agree with Nancy Pelosi on is her seeming inclination to drag this process out as long as possible in order to make it as painful as it possibly can be for Donald Trump. And she obviously is including in her calculus that a quick impeachment in the House followed by a speedy show trial and "exoneration" in Moscow Mitch's Senate would just give fuel to Trump's re-election campaign, and if you doubt that, please refer to how many seconds it took the stupidest reporters in the mainstream media, like the aforementioned Chuck Todd and NBC national security reporter Ken Dilanian, to declare Trump totally innocent after Bill Barr announced that he had skimmed the Mueller Report and decided to say Trump was totally innocent.

We continue to agree with David Faris, writing in The Week that the House should officially impeach Trump on the day before the 2020 election. An excerpt:

Rather than beginning impeachment proceedings tomorrow, Democrats should take the next year to continue investigating and litigating to obtain the documents and testimony they need. They then should summon the House from its regularly scheduled summer recess in 2020 to launch official impeachment hearings that would culminate during the Republican National Convention from August 24-27, 2020. Instead of proceeding to a vote after both sides have presented their cases, as would be customary in normal times, Speaker Pelosi could make up some smirking Mitch McConnell nonsense about how Democrats need to think about this for a really, really long time. Then, in the most devastating move possible, she should recall her caucus either the Friday or Monday before the November election to officially vote to impeach the president. Members can fly in and out of D.C. for the roll call vote and be back in their districts by mid-day. Good night and good luck.

President Trump would lose his mind. A sitting president has never run for re-election after getting impeached, let alone been forced to contest the election prior to a Senate trial. It would create absolute bedlam for his campaign.

DRAG. IT. OUT.

But whatever happens, one thing is for sure, and it is that we are moving at a pretty steady clip now toward a moment where the Democrats in the House will be a united front on this issue. Hell, we might even get another surprise Republican or two (whatcha doin', Will Hurd?) before all the Democrats get there.

In other words, the impeachment train is on the tracks like CHOO CHOO, MOTHERFUCKER, and those tracks end at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[ Politico ]

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