Relax, Y'all: Nancy Pelosi Still Has F*ckin' GOT THIS

Your bi-weekly reminder, in case you're getting worried, again, some more.

Nancy Pelosi is making some news this morning for something she reportedly said during a Great Big Fight with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler last night:

"I don't want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison," Pelosi said, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting. Instead of impeachment, Pelosi still prefers to see Trump defeated at the ballot box and then prosecuted for his alleged crimes, according to the sources.

WHOA IF TRUE! And it's probably true, because somebody leaked this to the Politicos, and we wouldn't be surprised if it was the speaker's own office leaking it.

Nadler was reportedly pushing Pelosi yet again to allow his committee to open an impeachment inquiry, as we imagine it would help with the committee's multiple investigations. And Pelosi is still saying no. Or should we say, Pelosi is still saying not yet . And we have a feeling she is going to keep saying not yet until the time is just perfect, at which point she will say YET! And then everybody on the internet will forget they have been mad at her, haha just kidding, shitting on Pelosi is an Olympic sport for some people.

That's not the most important thing Nancy Pelosi has said in the past couple of days, though. The most important thing came in a press conference Wednesday, where she talked about the people in her caucus who are pressing for impeachment right now, and the media's notion that the House Democratic caucus is somehow confused about what it's doing at the moment:

"I see in some metropolitan journals, and on some TV, that we are trying to find our way or are unsure about [our direction]," Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. "Make no mistake, we know exactly what path we're on. We know exactly what actions we need to take. And while that may take more time than some people want it to take, I respect their impatience."

She has seen it in the METROPOLITAN JOURNALS, because apparently now we are in a Cary Grant movie. There's even been talk in saloons! And why just yesterday, the town crier said the Democrats were in disarray, and why won't Nancy Pelosi say "HOW HIGH?" when people demand she jump!

Anyway, as to what she said, please focus on this part, because Pelosi again previewed how she's really thinking about all this:

Make no mistake, we know exactly what path we're on. We know exactly what actions we need to take.And while that may take more time than some people want it to take, I respect their impatience.

Wait, so if "some people" are impatient, because things might take longer than they want them to, and the "things" they are impatient about are starting an impeachment inquiry, then that doesn't sound like Pelosi shutting down the entire idea, does it? Nope! She's still on this slow and steady, just like we said she was doing a few weeks back.

For instance, Pelosi addressed the issue of the upcoming votes in the House to hold Bill Barr and errrbody else in contempt:

"It's about taking it one step at a time," she said. "We can move more expeditiously to do civil contempt; it doesn't mean we couldn't go to inherent contempt at some other point. But you have to get started."

And on the greater issues? Well, those are one step at a time, too, and the march has already begun.

As we've written, Pelosi continues to play her role and stick to her script, because as the leader of the caucus, she has a lot of cats to herd, including new freshmen in moderate districts who are scared -- at this point -- that they'll get sent right back home in 2020 if they move on this too fast. But she ain't mad at the growing chorus of Democrats calling for impeachment, or that those Democrats are working to recruit more Democrats to their cause. It's all part of the process.

Several weeks back, Pelosi explained her strategy, saying, "We want to follow the facts to get the truth to the American people, with the recognition [...] that no one is above the law, [and] that the president is engaged in a cover-up." So no sudden moves, please! We have exactly ONE shot at this, and we absolutely have to get it right. As Wonkette wrote at the time:  

Pelosi seems to be saying, " No, Donald, we're sorry . We're not handing you [an easy impeachment in the House that Mitch McConnell will shut down by Christmas] ... yet . We're going to let alllllllllll these investigations get really nasty and let you lose in court a whole bunch more, and we're going to look at your taxes and your weird foreign money stuff and see who really owns your ass, and we're going to put every person you know in a chair in front of the appropriate House committee, and if they don't show up, they'll be held in contempt, maybe even under Congress's power of inherent contempt , and they'll be fined $25,000 a day, and then you'll lose some more in court over THAT ... and once we have ALL THE FACTS in our hands, well ... WHO KNOWS WHAT WE MIGHT DO? "

And on top of WHO KNOWS WHAT WE MIGHT DO, we'd add the thinly veiled threat that NO ONE KNOWS THE DAY OR THE HOUR, just like the second coming of Jesus! It'll happen in the blink of an eye, without warning, and timed for maximum results and maximum pain inflicted on Donald Trump. (Just like the second coming of Jesus!)

In that vein, David Faris has a good piece in The Week , arguing for this sort of go slow strategy, not only to give Congress time to educate the American people and get them on their side, but also to give a few more Republicans a chance to climb on board with their friend Justin Amash. (The numbers are already looking pretty good, by the way. As the Washington Post   notes, in 1973, support for Nixon impeachment was at 19 percent, but was at almost 60 percent by the time he resigned in 1974. Right now, we're in the mid to high 40s for Trump.)

Faris's piece is called "Impeach Trump on the day before the election," and we're not sure the strategy he lays out isn't at least pretty close to what Pelosi is doing:

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.

Faris notes that it would fuck up the Republican National Convention, it would cut Mitch McConnell's desires for a snappy show trial in the Senate off at the knees, and Wonkette would add that it would serve as a yearlong campaign commercial against Trump, for whoever ends up being the Democratic nominee. And oh lord, can you imagine how much more incriminating information Congress would have in its hands by then, and how much more evidence of obstruction of justice?

We're not saying Pelosi should actually wait that long. We think the chorus is going to demand she move more quickly than that, and far more quickly when it comes to letting Nadler open up the inquiry in the House Judiciary Committee. And we think she'll be fine with that. But once begun, it needs to go slow like molasses, slicing and dicing every remaining shred of Donald Trump's dignity to pieces and exposing every last sick misdeed Congress can find. And it needs to be televised, like the reality TV show of Trump's worst nightmares. We think Nancy Pelosi is definitely already there with that part of the strategy.

As Pete Buttigieg said in a town hall this week, when asked about whether he supports impeachment (he does):

I would [...] say even though I have revealed myself to be ambitious in that I am a young man running for president, that I would also think twice before offering strategic advice to Nancy Pelosi.

Yeah, uh huh, AYUP, what he said.

 
 https: //wonkettebazaar.com/collections/nancy-pelosi-ride-or-die 

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