Did Pelosi And The Rest Of The Fear-Based Democrats Screw Up Impeachment?

Quote of the week comes from Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Teresa Tomlinson, a progressive, a super-smart attorney and, until earlier in the year, the very successful mayor of Columbus:

It’s fear that cripples the Democratic Party. Fear of our policies, fear of who we are, and fear of the Republicans. Yes, fear is what has politically cost us in the last many election cycles.

One cannot lead if one is afraid. The thing about leadership is that people want their leaders to be brave. They care less about what you think on the issues than whether you have the moxie to fight for them and the strength of conviction to tell them what you really think.

Instead of doing her constitutionally-mandated duty of beginning the process of removing the criminal in the White House, Pelosi-- a victim of her own hype about how sharp and strategic she is-- has been playing political calculus and, in the process, may have blown the chances to impeach Trump.

Early yesterday morning, the Sun Sentinel broke the news that garden variety congressional Democrat Ted Deutch, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, has finally gotten around to backing impeachment. It was in an OpEd penned by Deutch himself, No More Debate. Impeachment Inquiry Is Underway. But have they waited too long to win the battle of TV ratings-- and public support? "Although Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony may not have been a summer blockbuster," wrote Deutch, "it confirmed the damning conclusions of his report. The investigation revealed substantial evidence that President Trump obstructed justice. And that the Special Counsel did not exonerate him."

Why it wasn't a summer blockbuster isn't addressed by Deutch. Everyone inside the Beltway was tuned in-- but not the national audience that would have been had it been "important enough" to be part of impeachment. If the Democrats didn't think it was impeachment material, why should people take time out of their busy days to watch this "inside baseball" stuff? That's where Pelosi (and Nadler) miscalculated. Did they blow the chance to turn public opinion decisively in favor of impeachment, the way the Nixon television impeachment hearings did?

The most recent Reuters poll (by Ipsos) has some important numbers to consider. Among registered voters, 59% say the country is heading in then long direction. (55% of independents agree.)

Among registered voters, Trump's job approval is 40%, with disapproval at 59%. (Among independents, it's 42% approve and 51% disapprove.)

People polled say the Mueller testimony didn't sway them much in terms of impeachment. "Among those [71%] who read, saw or heard about Mueller's testimony, 47% said it made no difference in their views about impeaching the president. The public hearings had opposing impacts based on partisanship: among Democrats, 48% said they are more likely to support the process of impeachment that could ultimately lead to Trump’s removal from office, 8% said they are less likely to support impeachment and 44% said they feel the same as they did prior to Mueller’s testimony. Whereas for Republicans, only 3% said they were more likely to support impeachment, 42% said they were less likely, and 54% were unchanged. Independents were split, with 26% saying they are more likely to support impeachment and 29% saying less likely. 45% of Independents said they feel the same as they did prior to Mueller’s testimony."

Even after the hearings in which Mueller explicitly said he did NOT exonerate Trump, 35% of voters believed the had exonerated Trump and just 41% were clear-minded enough to understand that he hadn't. And a new Quinnipiac poll shows that although 51% believe Trump is a racist and that 71% are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" that a foreign government may try to interfere in the 2020 elections, and that a 52% to 40% majority said that Trump did attempt to "derail or obstruct" the investigation into the 2016 election, 60% of registered voters said Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings against him. (61% of Democrats do support impeachment.) Now... back to Deutch: "Trump," he wrote, "claimed victory. He seems to think that Mueller’s performance wasn’t enough to trigger an impeachment inquiry. Sorry, Mr. President, the question is no longer whether the House should vote to proceed with a formal impeachment inquiry. The inquiry has already begun." But did Pelosi and her fear-driven caucus botch the process with their incremental approach to even this?

The Constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole authority of impeachment. Officially launching an impeachment inquiry has never been a prerequisite to using that authority. The Judiciary Committee may refer articles of impeachment to the whole House for a vote at any time.

In the past, a resolution directing the Judiciary Committee to consider impeachment was needed to grant the committee additional subpoena authority and financial resources. That was the official start of an impeachment inquiry.

But times have changed. In 2015, Republican leaders gave committee chairs broad subpoena powers-- powers that Chairman Nadler retains today.

No additional step is required. No magic words need to be uttered on the House floor. No vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry is necessary.

The Judiciary Committee officially started its investigation into the abuse of power by President Trump on March 4, 2019. The stated purpose was to consider all constitutional remedies for presidential misconduct, including impeachment. In every meaningful way, our investigation is an impeachment inquiry. The Judiciary Committee already has the power to refer articles of impeachment to the whole House.

The Trump Administration has taken unprecedented and unconstitutional actions to ignore congressional subpoenas and pressure witnesses not to appear. President Trump has turned the White House into a black box. The Justice Department fabricated a theory of blanket immunity and distorted claims of executive privilege. The Administration wants to silence the witnesses to the President’s obstruction.

But the American people deserve to hear from former White House Counsel Don McGahn, under oath, about when the President ordered him to fire Mueller. And from Corey Lewandowski about when he was asked to narrow the scope of the investigation to protect the President. And from former Attorney General Jeff Sessions about President Trump’s pressure campaign to take back control of the investigation.

If the suggestion that we are already in the midst of an impeachment inquiry sounds farfetched, look to last week’s court filings by the House counsel. To break the administration’s stonewalling, the House lawyers explained that the Constitution gives the House “a constitutional power of the utmost gravity-- recommendation of articles of impeachment.” Since Department of Justice policies won’t allow the prosecution of a sitting President, only the House of Representatives can ensure that the President is not above the law.

As we told the court, we already have the power. We don’t need a vote. We need President Trump to stop obstructing.

The committee has said repeatedly that impeachment is on the table. Legal experts, and now Robert Mueller himself, confirmed that the Special Counsel’s investigation was never capable of holding a sitting president accountable. Justice Department regulations ensured that was the case.

The remedies for presidential misconduct, including impeachment, are in Congress’s hands. Now that we have Special Counsel Mueller’s report and testimony, it is time for the witnesses of the President’s wrongdoing to appear before the committee as part of our ongoing investigation.

As Chairman Nadler noted in his opening statement last week, “We will follow the facts where they lead. We will consider all appropriate remedies. We will make our recommendation to the House when our work concludes.”

We don’t need to launch an impeachment inquiry. It has been under way since March.

Yesterday, Politico's whip list showed that over half the Democrats in the House (118 out of 235) now favor opening formal impeachment proceedings against Trump. The latest members to announce their support, besides Deutch, are Eliot Engel (New Dem-NY), Mike Levin (D-CA), Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA), Jason Crow (New Dem-CO) and Katherine Clark (D-MA), a member of Pelosi's leadership team.

Politico: "The lawmakers quietly working to organize support for Trump’s impeachment say there are two important figures to watch in the next few weeks. Assistant speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), 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. Though there’s no indication he’s changing his tune, Luján’s support for impeachment proceedings could help unlock the backing of a slew of freshman Democrats who Luján helped elect in 2016, when he ran Democrats’ campaign arm, pro-impeachment lawmakers say. And Lewis’ support would carry significant sway with members of the Congressional Black Caucus who have remained on the fence so far. Lewis has repeatedly been asked for his opinion on impeachment proceedings but has repeatedly indicated that he’s deferring to Pelosi."

That primary opponent Politico referred to as the person Luján is running against and who has embraced beginning impeachment proceedings is New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a strong and dedicated progressive. She had forced the generally conservative Luján to flip flop on issue after issue. Because of her he now claims to support Medicare-for-All and the Green New Deal, though he barely understands what either is. Yesterday, Oliver gave us a statement on Luján's hemming and hawing about impeachment. "For the good of our democracy," she wrote, "I am asking Congressman Lujan to use his leadership position and join my call for impeachment so that we can hold this president accountable and prevent any further abuses of power by the president. We must take action now to protect our democratic process by impeaching President Donald Trump. What’s more, we can hold this president accountable and still pass important legislation like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All."

Please consider contributing to Maggie's campaign for the New Mexico Senate seat by clicking on the Blue America 2020 Senate thermometer just above on the right. Not only will she make a better senator than Ben Ray Luján ever would, she'll actually make a great senator, one like Jeff Merkley, Mazie Hirono, Tammy Baldwin, Brian Schatz and, most of all, Tom Udall, the New Mexico progressive who is retiring now. It would be tragic to replace a progressive like Udall with a fear-based conservative like Luján.

Florida-- A Beacon Of Hope?

It's been a really good week politically in the Sunshine State so far. Republican hopes to pull off another Scott Brown shocker were dashed when Ed Lynch got clobbered Tuesday night by Democratic state Senator Ted Deutch. In 2008 Lynch was swamped by long-time incumbent Robert Wexler (of Firebreathing Liberal fame) with 66% of the vote. Deutch, relatively unknown in much of the district, drew 64%). Lynch and the GOP had tried to turn the special election to replace Wexler into a referendum on Obama in general and healthcare reform in particular. Obama won the district in 2008 with 65% and healthcare reform is something most normal people (i.e., non-Glenn Beck viewers) see as a positive. Tone deaf and clueless, Lynch and the Republicans-- deeply ensconced in their own Hate Talk Radio/Fox bubble-- insisted that Deutch’s aggressive and unwavering support of the health care law would prove politically fatal. It was fatal-- for Lynch.

Democrats in District 19-- which mixes a big chunk of Palm Beach County with a smaller piece of Broward-- gave Deutch, his campaign team, local Party leaders and a legion of volunteers the solid turnout and big win they yearned and worked so hard for.

Several key political points were made here-- from a cleansing of the political palate following Republican Scott Brown's Massachusetts Senate win a few months ago, to a road-test of the grassroots organizing and Get Out The Vote capacities of the local Democratic party in advance of November, to a "bring it on" response to GOP efforts to make the race a referendum on President Obama and health reform.

All those points were scored, emphatically, with high style marks all the way around.
Some in politics and media-- Republicans, The Tea Party, Fox News-- will maintain that because the 19th District is predominantly Democratic and liberal, this big Deutch win is not real news.

But over this past year of health reform Town Halls and Tea Party frenzy, some among the traditional Democratic Party faithful, especially Senior Citizens, became confused and/or disillusioned with their customary political brand of choice. It was a potential vulnerability that Deutch's Republican opponent, Ed Lynch, tried to tap into and exploit. But no such luck. Instead, Democrats rallied back together around a great candidate, and gave him a great win.

That is not only real news-- it is really good news for the Florida Democratic Party moving forward in this critical 2010 election year. And it is not very good news for the state's ultra-partisan politicians and calculating Republican candidates like U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio, who are counting on continuing to use the Politics of Fear & Confusion to influence people and win votes.

Public servants who, like Ted Deutch, aspire to be statesmen rather than simply settling for being politicians, can cut right through that kind of divisive politics. Deutch has already demonstrated in the State Senate that those whom we elect to government can still work in bipartisan fashion to achieve great things for the benefit of The Common Good-- not for Democrats vs. Republicans, not for Liberals over Conservatives, but rather for the community benefit of the hard-working general public.

Meanwhile, further north, Gainesville not only elected a progressive as its new mayor, they elected openly gay City Commissioner Craig Lowe, who had been under vicious attack by deranged Republican homophobes.

And the quarterly fundraising reports show that the GOP's top national target, Rep. Alan Grayson from Orlando, who takes no money from lobbyists, banksters or anyone with business before his committees, raised more money-- almost entirely from small grassroots donations-- than anyone else running for Congress in the United States, his second quarter in a row with over $800,000.

With Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink already making headway, the GOP just got thrown for a loop when their handpicked establishment candidate, Bill McCollum, got a big spending extremist jumping in against him, multimillionaire teabagger Rick Scott, one of the most loathsome creatures to ever pop up in American politics. On his first day in the race, he blanketed the Florida airwaves with $1.5 million in ads-- right out of what he's stolen from the various healthcare companies he's defrauded over the years. And McCollum went batshitcrazy:

Rick Scott's aggressive new campaign for governor is gleefully distributing yesterday's talking points circulated by Scott's rival Attorney General Bill McCollum, until yesterday the presumptive GOP nominee.

The talking points include a section headed "Off Record/Surrogates" that goes after Scott on his obvious vulnerability: The hospital company he lead, Columbia/HCA, pled guilty to massive fraud charges after his departure. Scott says the company should have fought the charges, but it's a hard thing to recover from.

A slightly more surprising line in the talking points charges that Scott-- who started harshly attacking the health care legislation while many Republicans were still taking a wait-and-see approach-- didn't fight hard enough.

"He abandoned the fight against the Democrats once the public option was dropped," say the talking points, which have the name of McCollum's communications director, Kristy Campbell, attached.
They also include a link to a slashing video from Health Care for America Now, a frontal attack on Scott from the left, and an unflattering New York Times profile.

I hope we'll be seeing plenty of this delightful ad again, paid for with plenty of GOP dollars:



Scott, predictably, is slinging the mud just as hard. Should be as much fun as Crist vs Rubio. Speaking of which... Rubio has been floating the rumor for months that Crist would wind up running as an independent. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal picked it up and amplified it gigantically.

Hounded by conservative activists as too liberal, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is being advised by some close supporters to abandon his lagging Republican primary bid for a U.S. Senate seat and run instead as an independent.

Mr. Crist's campaign issued a statement last week saying the governor would run in the Republican primary and describing the talk of an independent bid as "baseless rumors.''

Still, some advisers see room for him to take another course. Mr. Crist is trailing badly in public-opinion surveys against state House Speaker Marco Rubio, who has become a darling of conservative activists nationally.

Florida law doesn't give Mr. Crist the flexibility that enabled Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to win election in 2006 as a third-party candidate after losing the Democratic primary. Mr. Crist must decide by April 30 whether to seek the Republican nomination or to appear instead on the general-election ballot with no party affiliation.

An important sign of Mr. Crist's aims could come this week: He must decide by Friday whether to veto a teacher merit-pay bill supported by prominent conservatives in the party.

"If you were to put a gun to my head, I'd say he's running as an independent," said a GOP strategist who serves as an informal adviser to the governor.

His exit from the primary would mark the biggest win yet this year for the GOP's conservative wing, which is trying to pressure the party to strictly oppose Democratic policy initiatives, such as the economic-stimulus initiative and a cap-and-trade energy program, both of which Mr. Crist has at times embraced. But the move would also present those activists with a risk. Should Mr. Crist win the Senate seat as an independent or serve as a spoiler by splitting the GOP and helping to hand the seat to Democrats, it could undermine their argument that the party can best help itself by moving to the right.

One longtime adviser to the governor said vetoing the education bill-- which would eliminate the possibility of tenure for new teachers and create a new pay scale linked to student performance-- would allow Mr. Crist essentially to kick off an independent candidacy with a bang. Rejecting the measure could draw support from one of the state's most potent Democratic Party interest groups, Florida's 140,000-member teachers union, which opposes the legislation.

...[S]ome Republicans see a number of Mr. Crist's recent actions as signals that he is moving closer to an independent run.

Last week, Mr. Crist vetoed a campaign-finance bill that was a GOP priority. In addition, he is weighing whether to call the legislature into special session during the summer to discuss ethics legislation, a move that could highlight recent Republican scandals and try to signal the governor's independence from the party.

Several Crist supporters said he would prefer to win the GOP nomination. The governor is spending $1 million to air negative ads targeting Mr. Rubio-- an effort, some Crist supporters said, to test the former speaker's vulnerability before the governor is forced to decide whether to remain in the primary.

All that said (and keeping in mind that the newest Quinnipiac polling shows that Crist would win the Senate seat as an independent), the two most important opportunities for progressives in Florida this year-- aside from beating back the reactionary menace by helping Grayson win a decisive victory-- are red-to-blue pickups by great Democratic House candidates in FL-12 (Doug Tudor) and FL-16 (Dave Lutrin). Oh-- and then there's this...