Snow Job – v2: Watching the Ongoing House Food Fight


As you hear the arguments about this impeachment question, the filling out of the impeachment picture, be alert to what doesn’t belong:

    • Perhaps President Obama and Attorney General Holder stonewalled information regarding the Fast and Furious event, but that affair has nothing to do with this impeachment process.
    • Perhaps the impeachment process went too fast. That’s solely an individual opinion, but either way, it has no bearing on President Trump’s innocence or guilt.
    • Perhaps Democrats wanted to impeach Trump from the moment he was elected and were constantly on the lookout for a provocation to do that, but that has nothing to do with Trump’s actions that triggered this impeachment or the proper remedy.
    • Claiming that the facts are contested only means that some have see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, self-imposed limitations and that has no bearing on actual, real world facts about whether the president violated our laws and our Constitution. Indeed, he bragged about his actions. That is to say, denying reality doesn’t change reality, nor does it have bearing on whether to impeach.
    • Perhaps Congressman Nadler warned of dangers to the nation if President Clinton were impeached. That was a completely different case and Nadler’s 1999 comments aren’t at issue in this case.
    • Impeachment of Trump might overturn the will of the American people – that’s what it’s supposed to do, what the Framers created it to do. That complaint has nothing to do with Trump’s guilt or innocence or the proper remedy.
    • Perhaps the impeachment process has been unfair. Fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder and has a way of being defined by whether what has happened favors the viewer. There’s always someone who thinks s/he has been treated unfairly. That has nothing to do with Trump’s innocence or guilt and has nothing to do with the proceedings.
    • Perhaps Republicans dislike Adam Schiff and his chairing of the House Intelligence Committee hearings and they like to accuse him of obstruction of Congress, but neither Schiff nor his chairing are at issue and have no bearing on whether to impeach.
    • Claiming that President Trump has not been given a chance to defend himself is, first, flatly false; he was invited but chose not to appear before any House committee or before the entire House. Further, he was afforded the opportunity to question witnesses, but refused. Second, the historical venue for such a defense is in the Senate, not in the House, so whining about the lack of an opportunity to defend has nothing to do with the impeachment process in the House.
    • Perhaps it’s enjoyable by some to demean, accuse and attempt to humiliate opponents. It’s possible that displaying great passion is satisfying and that declaring what’s in someone else’s head as though clairvoyant is ego-plumping. It’s even likely that self-righteousness expressed at loud volume and quite rapidly feels powerful. None of that has anything to do with Trump’s guilt or innocence or what the proper remedy is. Not even if a few others shout “Amen.”
    • Accusations that the House should attend to the work for the people (instead of impeachment) stand in idiotic opposition to the truth, that the House has passed hundreds of bills designed to benefit the people. Many were passed in bi-partisan fashion. The vast majority sit in stacks on the floor of Mitch McConnell’s office, as he refuses to bring them to the Senate for debate and a vote. More important for now, they have nothing to do with the impeachment of Donald Trump.

There’s more, of course, but you get the point. None of these issues has anything to do with President Trump’s guilt or his fidelity to the Constitution or whether to impeach. It’s just a series of distractions and whiny claims of victim-hood – a snow job.

These impeachment proceedings are solely about:

  1. Whether Donald Trump abused the power of the Presidency by:
    1. Soliciting interference in our 2020 election by a foreign nation
    2. Shaking down a foreign ally by withholding desperately needed military aid and compromising our national security in the process
    3. Attempting to smear an assumed political opponent and gain political leverage for himself by means of foreign interference, which is expressly  prohibited by the Constitution
    4. Soliciting foreign assistance to shift blame for interference in our 2016 election from Russia to Ukraine
  2. Whether Donald Trump obstructed Congress by:
    1. Refusing to properly respond to Congressional subpoenas for documents (“stonewalling”)
    2. Refusing to allow any Executive Branch officials to testify before Congress, even though they had been delivered subpoenas to appear (“stonewalling”)

Click the link below to download the 6-page, double-spaced Articles of Impeachment. It will help you to keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole as the snow job proceeds.

NOTE: The Constitutionally mandated penalty for presidential breaking of the law and abusing the Constitution is impeachment. For the originalists in Congress, impeachment is the conservative thing to do.

“Only two times in our nation’s history has the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach a President — and never before for threatening our national security.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL 10)

Impeachment articles

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NOTES:

  1. Writings quoted or linked from my posts reflect a point I want to make, at least in part. That does not mean that I endorse or agree with everything in such writings, so don’t bug me about it.
  2. Errors in fact, grammar, spelling or punctuation are all embarrassingly mine. Glad to have your corrections.
  3. Responsibility for the content of these posts is unequivocally, totally, unavoidably mine.

Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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One Response to Snow Job – v2: Watching the Ongoing House Food Fight

  1. Jim Altschuler December 18, 2019 Reply

    For the last 4+ years Trump has lied repeatedly to gain whatever advantage and/or opportunity that he wanted. Much of this has been done by simply telling the same lies over and over. “Tell a lie often enough and some people will believe it to be true.”

    Though it is not a Constitutional violation to lie to the American people, it should be (my opinion).

    A president of the United States should not have impunity from prosecution for libel and/or slander, both of which he as done to political opponents and congressional representatives alike (my opinion).

    Allies of the U. S. should be treated as such, not “stabbed in the back” or hung out to dry. Enemies should be dealt with minimally and at arms length, not cozied up to as though they were allies (again, my opinion, though the latter may be the same kind of violation as outlined in the impeachment articles).

    I am not now nor have I ever been a fan of Trump and certainly not a fan of his tactics or treatment of others. How is it possible that there are many people, regardless of party affiliation, who still believe in and follow this guy?