The House Says NO To Impeachment Again

On Friday, while the Senate was trying too figure out how to not shut down the government, the House voted to table-- like in kill-- another impeachment resolution. Just so we're all on the same page here, a vote to impeach Trumpanzee is not the same as removing him from office. It just begins the process with hearings and an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee. Why would anyone deny that is warranted. And yet, yesterday every Republican and 121 Democrats voted to kill the whole idea of it by supporting the resolution to table the bill. 66 Democrats-- see graphic below-- voted against the motion (in other words to proceed with beginning the impeachment process).

click on this and you'll see the names more clearly

All of our favorite members voted to get the show on the road: Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan, Barbara Lee, Ted Lieu, Jamie Raskin, Raul Grijalva...

Alan Grayson certainly would have led the clamour for impeachment had he still been in Congress. I noticed that none of the 3 conservative Democrats representing Orlando-- Val Demings, Darren Soto and Stephanie Murphy-- backs impeachment. I asked Grayson what he thinks about istarting the process. He told me that "the Constitutional standard for impeachment is "high crimes and misdemeanors."  Mis- means "badly."  Demeanor, from the Latin word minari, means how you conduct yourself.  Is there anyone left, in the entire world, who doubts that Donald Trump conducts himself badly?"

Although the establishment candidate in IN-09 is mouthing some progressive phrases she thinks will "work," Dan Canon is the progressive candidate in the flippable district that goes from the suburbs of north of Louisville to the suburbs through Salem, Bloomington and Martinsville into the suburbs south of Indianapolis. One thing Dan is not is a GOP-lite establishment shill. "The Republicans in Congress," he told us, "wouldn't vote to impeach Donald Trump if he unhinged his jaw and swallowed a child on live television. The integrity of American institutions, including the office of the president, matters far less to these oligarchs than retaining power. It's been that way for a while, but standards of decency in the age of Trump have been visibly and unmistakably discarded. I think that American voters are starting to see that, and they don't like it."

Good point and not that different from the one NC-05 progressive Jenny Marshall made: "The process of impeachment is established by our constitution as a remedy for those government officials who commit offenses deemed treasonous, for bribery or other crimes.  If President Trump has met the requirements for impeachment then it is the sworn duty of Congress to file the articles and proceed with the process. Period. Congress should and must do its job of upholding the constitution. Virginia Foxx has shown once again that she will put party before the people of this country."

But not every Blue America candidate is in accord on the strategy of when and how to impeach Trump. One member we respect and who delivers is Ro Khanna, the Silicon Valley Democrat who voted to table the motion yesterday. He told us that "We need to let the process play out and let Mueller do his job. If the Republicans were to say that they don’t care about the evidence and will vote against impeach even if Mueller finds that Trump collided with Russia, we would say that’s irresponsible and a dereliction of duty. How then can we vote to impeach before considering the evidence Mueller presents? We have to remain the party of facts, of reason, and of evidence based decision making. As abhorrent as Trump’s statements have been, our highest responsibility is to our nation’s institutions and democratic process."

Some of our candidates agreed with Ro's approach. One said that "My guess is that Mueller’s report will shock the conscience of the nation and lead to 45’s impeachment, conviction, and removal from office." Another said, "I want an investigation and report to be concluded first before an impeachment. I want the record to be clear of why such an extreme measure is needed."

OK... but how much more damage does he do before the process begins? Which side to you come down on yourself? How about this? If you think the right move was to start the impeachment process, contribute a couple of dollars to Dan Canon, Alan Grayson and Jenny Marshall by clicking on the ActBlue congressional thermometer on the right. If you don't agree, just sit this one out and signal that you don't think the time is right to strat the long hard process of impeaching The Donald for one reason or another. I've very curious to see where DWT readers come down on this. And if you feel contributing $3.00 is a poll tax, feel free to express your opinion in the comments section, on Twitter or on Facebook. Its pretty rare that Pramila Jayapal and Ro Khanna are on opposite sides of a question. Have you noticed?

I hope John Kennedy (R-LA) wasn't excluding himself when he blasted his Senate colleagues on yesterday: "Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots."

And, by the way, as long as we're talking about getting rid of Trumpanzee, Axios commissioned a new poll of Republican voters from Survey Monkey. The older the voter, the more likely they seem to be satisfied or even happy with Trump. When the question-- "Do you want another Republican to challenge President Trump for the party's nomination in 2020?"-- was asked, 56% of Republicans said NO and only 42% said YES. But look at the age breakdown in this chart below. 24% of Republicans over 65 want a challenger but it isn't until the 35-44 year old cohort that a majority are looking for an alternative to Trump. And when you get to GOP voters between 18 and 24, it's a whopping 82% who would like an alternative.