Impeachment

[Blossom]

I don't think even this Supreme Court is going to let the "the president can't be investigated for anything, for any reason, while in office" argument ride.

I long for the days when I had your naïve optimism.

It's not optimism, it's just a different kind of cynicism.

Conservative Supreme Court justices are similar to conservative elected officials, but they're not quite the same thing. They aren't running for reelection; they're thinking past the next election and they're aware that, no matter how much they gut the Voting Rights Act and uphold gerrymandering, sooner or later there's probably going to be another Democratic president.

Stare decisis is really more of a guideline.

[Thad]

Romney says he'll vote to convict.

In terms of actually convicting, it doesn't make a difference. In terms of optics, it at least undermines the talking point that this is a partisan witch hunt. It calls attention to the other Republicans' spinelessness, and that might matter in November.

Trump is reportedly furious, so there's that.

[Friday]

Of course he's furious. It undermines his narrative that the GOP is the cool guys and the Democrats are the do-nothing commies. If one of his cool guys isn't with him then maybe it's not that every Democrat is a muslim terrorist but perhaps maybe he did something wrong.

I mean, he'll spin it by saying Romney isn't a real Republican. Because that's what the GOP always does when this happens.

[McDohl]

Yeah, I predicted today on Twitter that we'll see I-UT next to his name before the year is out.

[zaratustra]

Of course he's furious. It undermines his narrative that the GOP is the cool guys and the Democrats are the do-nothing commies. If one of his cool guys isn't with him then maybe it's not that every Democrat is a muslim terrorist but perhaps maybe he did something wrong.

I mean, he'll spin it by saying Romney isn't a real Republican. Because that's what the GOP always does when this happens.

Trump went to town on McCain for much less than this.

[Mongrel]

Votes over. Romney did in fact vote to convict, though only on article 1 and not article 2. Article 1 is more important though.

[Thad]

Yeah, I predicted today on Twitter that we'll see I-UT next to his name before the year is out.

Maybe on a Fox chyron.

Trump will huff and puff, but Mitt's got the job for as long as he wants it; Iowa isn't going to drum him out of the party or the office over this. And Mitch knows he needs him; his majority is still too slim to push back too hard against any of the occasional defectors. And Mitch is a pragmatist; it's not like Romney's vote affected the outcome.

As for Romney quitting the party himself? I don't think that's likely either. I think he's a true believer in that "let's try and fix the Republican Party's reputation" stuff, and no amount of evidence is going to convince him that Trumpism *is* the Republican Party now.

...anyway, the vote's over. Trump has survived impeachment, as expected.

But the impeachment was just part of it. Nadler's already signaling that he intends to subpoena Bolton; the McGahn subpoena has made it to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals; there are the various other suits concerning his finances...we're going to keep getting new stories about Trump's corruption for the duration of his presidency (and beyond), and as bad as his congressional defenders look today, they're just going to look worse as more comes out.

I hope it's enough. All the Democrats need to flip are 54,000 votes in three states.

[mharr]

Hey, y'all remember when Bill was successfully impeached for, comparatively, fucking nothing?

Feels like that was centuries past.

[Blossom]

Hey, y'all remember when Bill was successfully impeached for, comparatively, fucking nothing?

Feels like that was centuries past.

He was also successfully impeached but not convicted.

[Thad]

Vindman, his brother, and Sondland have all been fired.

The House should impeach him again. First thing Monday morning.

[Metal Slime]

Amazingly he responds to getting off the first impeachment by handing the House what they need for a second impeachment and this time they don't even need the motions of evidence or witnesses to make a case.

I hope the Dems turn this into a game of chicken that keeps pushing the Republicans back to the edge of the cliff.

[Thad]

Trump whined on Twitter about the Roger Stone trial.

Barr intervened and had the DoJ reduce the recommended sentence.

So far three prosecutors have resigned in protest. (ETA: CNN is now saying all four have withdrawn themselves from the case, and two have resigned their positions in addition.)

ETA I meant to post this in the Oh Shit thread but I suppose it's at least impeachment-adjacent, in that we can expect this kind of shit to keep happening with no consequences.

[Thad]

The DC Circuit has ruled that McGahn doesn't have to testify to Congress.

It's a bad ruling -- Ken White describes it as handwaving US v Nixon as "look, we did some crazy shit in the '70s" -- and we can expect an en banc appeal, followed by a Supreme Court appeal.

[Thad]

You know how I keep saying that all the Trump Administration's stalling is just going to lead to all the stuff he's trying to hide coming out closer to the election? I think we'll be seeing a lot more news like this over the next eight months.

[Thad]

[Mongrel]

"eight to 10"

ARRRRRGH

NO COOKIE

[Thad]

bump

[Friday]

wow Thad fucking necroing a thread?

that's MASSIVELY hypocritical of you considering you temp banned yyler one time

[Brantly B.]

It feels really bad to say "impeaching Donald Trump is a waste of time" but really guys, you have so many bigger fish to fry.

[beatbandito]

Look, if this administration is ever going to not get anything done, they have to start somewhere.