When it’s lost Adam Schiff…
…then impeachment isn’t going so well.
Schiff in a recent interview with Jake Tapper:
Jake Tapper, CNN host: Do you think President Trump should be impeached?
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee: I want to discuss this with my constituents and my colleagues before I make a final judgment on it.
Tapper: And you’ve also said that what you’ve seen is, “far more serious than what Nixon did.” Explain to me how you have not come to the conclusion that the president should be impeached? I mean, it sounds like you think he should be impeached.
Schiff: Well, I certainly think that the evidence that’s been produced overwhelmingly shows serious misconduct by the president. But I do want to hear more from my constituents, and I want to hear more from my colleagues. This is not a decision I will be making alone.
I bet he’s already heard a fair amount more from his “colleagues.”
It ain’t 1973 anymore.
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la…
“Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3KEhWTnWvE
When a politician says, “This is something I need to discuss with my constituents,” then you know the game is lost.
Thanksgiving for the Dems was like that Wile E. Coyote moment when he finds himself off the edge of the cliff, flails around, then realizes he is helpless in mid-air and about to fall a long ways.
Democrats were pretty brave a week ago. Nothing has changed since then except the bad polls for independents and swing states have sunk in.
I don’t see how they could back off from impeachment at this point without infuriating their base voters. They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
That little interchange reveals that Schiff has risen to his position of incompetence. He’s manuevered himself into the proverbial “rock and a hard place”. If he votes to impeach Trump and it goes to the Senate he’ll be called as a witness and exposed beyond the MSM’s ability to cover for him. If the Dem’s then refuse to vote to expel him, his unscrupulous nature attaches to the party.
But if he doesn’t vote to impeach, the Dems activist base will revolt.
Maybe the Democrats will invent a new kind of impeachment vote, which declares Trump impeached, but the Senate is not allowed to hold a trial.
Calvinball!
My Wile E. Coyote metaphor was not all that surprising. Here’s an animator who got there first and did a splendid job:
“PolitiZoid: Schiff Hits the Fan”
http://americandigest.org/sunday-morning-cartoons-just-like-the-old-days/
Huxley: That cartoon made my day!
Thanks, huxley. Recognize it, never knew what it was; good song (and I’m very very picky!). One commenter says it’s actually a Lithuanian folk song. Another says No. Another asks, Is it Russian? A couple say it has a Slavic flavor. Heck if I know….
Those Were the Days — Readable lyrics at source (“show more”).
P.S. The Roadrunner’s always been on my shortshortlist of favorites.
Bless the politically intelligent no-nonsense cartoonist. Not to mention our friend huxley. :>)))
That fact that there was no one around who said, “Wait a minute. Do we really think we can pull this off? And if we don’t, what happens?” tells you a lot about today’s Democratic Party.
Thanks, Julie! You’re too kind. SCOTT, as well.
Wiki says “Those Were the Days” is based on a Russian song, “By the Long Road.” That sounds about right.
I once fell in love with “The Pennywhistlers,” a group of American women who performed Eastern/Central/Balkan European folk songs a cappella. Piercing, pure stuff. Can still give me chills.
“????? ???? ????? ???? by The Pennywhistlers (1966) LIVE!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsOj0xOdpXk
They were associated with Pete Seeger, so maybe they were all red diaper babies conspiring against our precious bodily fluids, but they sure could sing.
Hmm. I would have thought this web page could handle unicode. Apparently not. The title of the song roughly transliterated is “Maika Rada Sitno Plyet,” whatever that means.
Paul Mirengoff at PowerLine cautions against Republican “triumphalism” on impeachment:
I confess to being puzzled by the triumphalism expressed by some Trump supporters at the end of the House Intelligence Committee hearings on the president’s dealings with Ukraine. Sure, nothing happened in these hearings that will cause the Senate to remove Trump from office. But this process isn’t about removing Trump, it’s about injuring him politically.
In this regard, Trump supporters pointed to polls showing that the hearings did not move the needle in favor of removing the president. Some polls indicate a slight decline in sentiment for doing so.
However, heading into the Schiff committee hearings, polls showed that 45 to 50 percent of the public favored impeaching Trump. If one distributed the “undecideds” evenly, more than 50 percent supported impeachment. Polls that asked about “removal” as opposed to “impeachment” produced basically the same result.
If anything, then, the political burden was on Republicans to move the needle. They didn’t, not appreciably.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/the-politics-of-impeachment.php
I guess I read those polls more optimistically. But if Mirengoff is correct, why is Schiff so diffident? Trump is worse than Nixon but I gotta check my constituents before calling for impeachment?
“…But I do want to hear more from my constituents…”
(…But only those constituents who tell me what I want to hear….)
https://pjmedia.com/faith/an-open-letter-to-rep-adam-schiff-stop-spreading-accusatory-gossip-about-trump/
Here’s yet another impeachment theory — Pelosi in the library with the candlestick. Oops. No. Pelosi timed the impeachment to knock out the unelectable Senate candidates — Warren, Sanders, Harris, Klobuchar and Booker — who will be forced off the campaign trail during the Senate trial.
Pelosi’s manipulation of events even ensures that she’ll come out ahead regardless of how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell structures the impeachment trial in the upper chamber. McConnell can either move to dismiss the impeachment charges right away, or conduct a full trial to show the public that Republicans take the process seriously. If he chooses the first option, Pelosi can accuse Republicans of politicizing the matter. If he chooses the second option, he’ll be undermining the candidacies of some of the most easily beatable Democrats in the 2020 field.
The more I think about Pelosi’s parliamentary prowess, not to mention her barely concealed contempt for the neo-communists in her ranks, the more sense this all makes. Pelosi’s decision to launch the impeachment inquiry when she did wasn’t designed to knock Trump out of the presidential race, but to create a space for an establishment Democrat to enter the contest and secure the nomination.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/12/03/who_will_decide_democrats_2020_nominee_nancy_pelosi_141863.html
huxley — I think the Queen Bee allowed this to go forward, knowing that it will knock Uncle Joe out of the race. From the Republican side, it’s going to be Joe and Hunter Biden all the way. Even if Jumpin’ Jerry Nadler manages to prevent the Republicans from talking, if it goes to the Senate, the Republicans will call Joe and Hunter as witnesses. Then it’s ¡Hasta la vista, Joe baby!
Richard Saunders: So, you say Pelosi in the conservatory with the lead pipe.
Hmm. Could be!
What candidate do you think Pelosi hopes for?
I am disappointed to read the cynical analyses here. Shouldn’t we praise this Congressman for keeping an open mind on this difficult question? Not like those Republicans who can’t wait to diss the whole matter.
Kai Akker: Schiff? Keeping an open mind? Where do you get that?
This is the guy who rushed to a microphone to paraphrase Trump’s Ukraine phone call and flat made stuff up. Then after Trump declassified the phone call and caught Schiff flat-footed, Schiff said his reading was only intended as a parody.
Schiff has entirely earned the contempt of open-minded people.
Schiff has entirely earned the contempt of open-minded people. [Hux]
Do you know any?
The Eagles come to thought:
you can’t find the door
(Can’t find it anywhere)
When there’s nothing to believe in
Still you’re coming back, you’re running back
You’re coming back for more
So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time
Take it to the limit
Take it to the limit
Take it to the limit
One more time