Thus, the pressure to go all-in with impeachment has increased, most significantly among members of the important House Judiciary Committee--Jamie Raskin of Maryland ("The evidence is overwhelming: 10 different episodes of presidential obstruction of justice and the Trump campaign's enthusiastic embrace of the Russian attack on our elections." ), Pramila Jayapal from Washington State (also co-chair of the Progressive Caucus: "this [the Mueller testimony] is a groundbreaking moment."], and even committee Chair Jerrold Nadler. (Though he also seems to think the House can "lodge charges against the president without officially opening an inquiry.")
Joining the pack are "moderates" like Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, Budget Committee Chair John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Diana DeGette of Colorado, the chief deputy whip, and Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts, the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus; joining them are "progressives," "socialists," and "squaddies" like Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar. All told, more than 90 congresspersons now advocate beginning impeachment proceedings.
And, of course the major presidential candidates are now on board: Warren, Harris, O'Rourke, Booker, and Sanders--though not, it seems, Tulsi Gabbard.
Indeed, as Michael Tracey says: "being 'progressive' is now equated in the public mind with advocating that the president be impeached."
Let me count the ways this is a supremely bad idea.
1) Donald Trump is not going to be impeached. (And by "impeached," I mean not just "impeached by the House," but also convicted by the Senate and removed from office by impeachment proceedings.)
It just ain't gonna happen, and everybody knows it. It's not going to happen on the basis of the Mueller investigation, the Mueller Report, the Mueller testimony, or--the latest wall closing in--some bombshell testimony from Don McGahn. No matter how fervently they express their sincere belief that "The case for impeachment based on the Mueller investigation has been now publicly crystallized and articulated" (Raskin), they--every single one of the persons mentioned above--know very well that have not convinced even a handful of Republican legislators of that, let alone a critical mass of the public, and that there is zero chance of the Senate convicting and removing Trump for anything deriving from the Mueller investigation. That includes the "obstruction of justice" charge impeachment-hungry Democrats are trying to convince themselves is a winner, and they know it.
As I said in a previous essay, the Democrats have #Resisted themselves into a double-bind corner on this. Despite knowing they did not have political strength to pull it off--either in the legislature or, more importantly, among the population--the Democratic leadership and its media allies strung its base along and riled them up with the prospect of removing Trump from office via the ax of Trump-Hunter Mueller. That ploy was a deflection from confronting precisely the party's own political failures, but since so much of the party's base has fallen for it, and no one in the party leadership is willing to admit what a failure it was, that base now expects the promised result, which is impossible to achieve.
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