Needless to say, it's not every day that one sees a conservative urging the House to vote on impeaching President Trump. So, for liberals yearning for a conservative to do just that, rejoice! Because this is your day.
This writer is that conservative.
As for why this conservative urges granting Democrats their fondest wish – and during the runup to the midterm elections – follow the writer's admittedly Fawlty logic.
The above spelling and capitalization are correct: Fawlty, as in the seventies British sitcom Fawlty Towers, starring Monty Python alum John Cleese as Basil Fawlty, the "tense, rude and put-upon owner" of Fawlty Towers, "a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay on the English Riviera."
One especially memorable and funny episode, series-watchers surely will agree, is The Germans, referring to a party of German tourists who come to stay at the hotel and Basil's repeated admonition to his staff: "Don't mention the war!"
If Basil Fawlty were running for U.S. representative as a Democrat, he would be telling fellow Democrats: "Don't mention the impeachment!"
Not to put too fine a point on it, Democrats are not the ones known as the Stupid Party and so are well aware that a campaign centered on impeaching Trump is electoral cyanide. As Democratic representative Eric Swalwell so eloquently put it, "[r]ight now, we're not in the majority, and so running on that, I think, misses the issues that people care about at home."
Translation: "Don't mention the impeachment!"
One of the few pleasures for conservatives in this dismal election year is witnessing the rhetorical writhing of Democratic candidates and party pooh-bahs as they struggle to avoid uttering the dreaded "I-word" and risk turning off average (read: sane) voters, but without angering various (read: all) CNN and MSNBC talking heads and their unhinged, foaming-mouth, verging-on-certifiable liberal viewers demanding Donald Trump's head on a shining, environmentally friendly, recycled silver platter.
Unfortunately for our Democratic friends, for every Democrat whispering, "Don't mention the impeachment!" there is at least one Democrat screaming, "Impeach!" at anyone within earshot, or the Moon if no one is available.
Given House Democrats' and Democratic candidates' desperation not to mention the impeachment, it seems to behoove Republicans to force them to mention it. The best way to do that, the writer believes, is for Speaker Ryan to announce his intention – in the name of comity and bipartisanship, of course! – to allow House Democrats to make their case to the American people and, to that purpose, schedule a debate and vote on impeaching President Trump.
It is true that, thanks to Democratic representative Al Green, the House has already held an impeachment vote – sort of (emphases added):
U.S. Rep. Al Green's effort to push the U.S. House to vote to impeach President Donald Trump quickly died Wednesday[.] ...
Hours after he stood in front of a nearly empty House chamber to introduce articles of impeachment, Green sat alone in the middle of the chamber as the House voted 364-58 on a "motion to table" the resolution, effectively killing it. ...
Under House rules, after Green introduced his resolution ... the chamber had to vote on the measure in the next two days unless a vote to table the resolution was successful.
Close, but no cigar. A vote to table a "resolution to vote" on impeachment is not a vote on impeachment. Rather than beating around the bush with votes to table or other parliamentary gimmicks, Speaker Ryan should allow Green and other impeachment-advocating representatives ample time to explain to the public why they believe that Trump should be removed from office.
Or why Trump should not be removed.
Or Democrats can simply say nothing, which silence, alone, as the old saying goes, will speak volumes.
All of the above needs to happen before the November 6 election.
Simply making Democrats discuss an issue they want to avoid is ample reason to schedule a full-fledged debate and vote on impeachment. There are others.
First, however fervently conservatives may hope to beat the historical odds, historical precedent points to Democrats retaking the House in November, whereupon their first order of business, no doubt about it, take it to the bank, will be to impeach President Trump. Given that prospect, would conservatives rather the debate be held sooner, while Republicans control the House, or later, when Democrats take control?
The second reason arises from the joint statement Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer released following Al Green's impeachment speech (emphasis added):
Right now, Congressional committees continue to be deeply engaged in investigations into the President's actions both before and after his inauguration. The special counsel's investigation is moving forward as well, and those inquiries should be allowed to continue. Now is not the time to consider articles of impeachment.
Only the most naïve of Republicans (RIP, John McCain) can doubt that the nanosecond all of the aforementioned investigations are completed, a Democrat-controlled House will vote to impeach President Trump, regardless of the investigations' actual findings, for the simple reason that whatever the committees and special counsel report, Donald Trump will always be guilty of the real crimes for which Democrats want to hold him accountable: (1) defeating Hillary Clinton and depriving Democrats of the victory – and White House – to which they believe themselves entitled and (2) existing.
If Democrats take the House, they will impeach Trump, period. In the meantime, "Don't mention the impeachment!"
So, Speaker Ryan, schedule a debate and vote, now, to be held at the best (for Republicans) time between today and November 6.
Let every Democratic representative tell the American people, plainly and publicly, why President Trump should – or should not – be removed from office.
And let the every Republican advertising firm use the most vitriolic and unhinged of the Democratic "should" statements in its campaign ads, to leave no doubt in voters' minds that "if you give Democrats the House, they will impeach President Trump." Lord knows, the ad people will have plenty of unhinged statements from which to choose.
Let the "should not" statements demoralize the rabid, extreme Trump-hating Democratic base, who will settle for nothing less than Trump's impeachment and removal from office, and who will see no reason to bother going to the polls on Election Day if they think a Democratic House and Senate won't give it to them.
One final point: If the Democrats do win back the House and the House has already had a full debate and (failed) impeachment vote, scheduling a second vote, regardless of what Mueller reports, will be difficult – and transparently political.
So do it, Speaker Ryan. Be bold. Schedule the vote. Don't let the Dems get away with "Don't mention the impeachment!"
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/08/there_should_be_a_trump_impeachment_vote__and_republicans_should_schedule_it.html
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