Latest GOP Ultimatum: Keep Us In Power, Or Democrats Will Impeach Trump
Cynical new twist on the usual GOP carrot or a real threat?
The GOP has had a pretty good racket going. They tell us that in order to stop ObamaCare and any of a score of other disastrous laws, policies, and regulations, they need the next goal because the last one wasn’t enough.
The GOP told us they had to have the House, so we gave them the House. Then they needed the Senate, so we gave them that. Then they couldn’t do a thing without the White House, so we gave them that. The cynical GOP game is clear: Ever-moving goal posts coupled with the rejection of the will of the people who elected them.
It’s actually not a bad deal if you so disdain this country’s citizens and their will that you are happy to lie directly to them in order to attain and retain political power. Why not pledge time after time for seven years that you will repeal ObamaCare if that gets you reelected? You can always move the goalposts once in office.
The latest cynical carrot dangled before the Republican voter is the need, get this, to ensure that the same GOP who violated their every pledge and promise be returned to Congress to avoid the impeachment of President Trump.
Yep, that’s the latest goal we’re supposed to meet, threat we’re supposed to deflect: vote for us or Trump will be impeached and removed from office.
The person conveying this latest threat / promise? None other than Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday that if Republicans don’t pass tax reform, then Democrats will take back the House of Representatives and attempt to impeach President Donald Trump.
“Well, I think all of us realize that if we fail on taxes, that’s the end of the Republican Party’s governing majority in 2018,” Graham said on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show.” “We’ll lose the House, probably lose ground in the Senate and President Trump has got a profile different from the party — there’s kinda two or three different Republican Parties now, I guess. But we’re all in it together.”
“I can’t imagine how he could be successful with Nancy Pelosi running the House,” Graham continued. “They’d try to impeach him pretty quick and it would be just one constant investigation after another. So it’s important that we pass tax reform in a meaningful way. If we don’t, that’s probably the end of the Republican Party as we know it.”
The “end of the Republican Party” as the likes of Graham know it may not be a convincing argument to Trump supporters who want the swamp drained.
Threatening President Trump with impeachment, however, may well be a convincing argument for enough voters. Or it may backfire. Bigly.
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“You can dress up greed, but you can’t stop the stench.” ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough
Their greed is so massive and their stench is so powerful that it can no longer be ignored. Yet, we continue to find ourselves in the same dilemma, elect a RINO or a Democrat (outside of there being a viable third option). From time to time, I think that electing a RINO is just a continuation of a slow slide in the decline of the nation. Perhaps, I ought to vote for the Democrat and just get it over with, let it crash and burn, so to speak. Then, pick up the pieces and begin anew.
I just there will some manifestations in 2018 representative of what happened in 2016.
Do you doubt for a moment that if the Ds take the House they will impeach both Trump and Pence?
The danger is that, despite perfectly good legal and historical arguments to the contrary, impeachment is whatever enough congresscritters say it is. And that should be a two-edged sword—if the Republicans weren’t such weenies, they’d attack first, and start impeaching Dems. Like, now.
Judges would be a good place to start. The Dems themselves (‘way back when they were called Republicans) tried to do this, in an attempt to eliminate Federalist appointees from offices they hoped to pack with Democrats. They failed, but that doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t do better. Or perhaps Democrats who have been making the most noise about impeachment should be the first targets.
Well, it’s all fantasy. The Republicans will do nothing which might actually work, and the Dems certainly know it. Aggressive and imaginative moves are pure Kryptonite to the GOPe.
Sure, you impeach them, and then what? They are absolutely guaranteed to be acquitted, and they will portray that acquittal as a vindication and a badge of honor. It will help them, as it did Clinton in ’98.
Sure, the same is true for Trump/Pence in reverse; a D house may impeach them but they will never be convicted. And therefore if the Ds still had the relative sanity they had until about a year ago I’d say they won’t impeach. But with them now in full deranged mode I think they would, even knowing that it won’t go anywhere. Do you really want that?
True, on impeachment in both the Executive and Judicial branch, but with differences.
An impeached judge/president/VP is guaranteed to remain in office no matter what the vote in the House (simple majority), because the Senate requires a 2/3 majority, and although we have the Usual Suspects who waffle like crazy, 2/3 ain’t happening.
The process provides the punishment, however. For judges, the process is fairly light, because any requests for documents go through staff, and the judge can take a few years of impeachment proceedings as paid leave, and go right back to work after.
For a president, the loss of the house to Pelosi and her ilk would mean every single (censored) decision would be dragged out and flogged, with subpoenas fired off into the White House on a daily basis. Threaten to veto a bill? Subpoena. Go golfing with three people. Three subpoenas. Secret Service agent retires? Subpoena for anything they may have seen while on duty. Disgruntled Obama appointee gets fired? Front page news, committee appearances, and (of course) subpoenas galore.
Of course, there’s this inconvenient budget thing that drags up every year, but all they need to do is about that is slap ten percent on last years budget and fire it off to the Senate with a day or two to spare. Maybe twelve percent for the really good things that have been given a rest over the last years. Or fifteen, if they’re greedy. Then it’s back to the Trump subpoena game.
The threat of impeachment might have helped Clinton in 1998 (you could explain the results in terms of his weak 1992 coattails and the strong economy), but his “vindication” didn’t happen until 1999. Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998. GWB won in 2000.
Ha, this is funny. I don’t vote for Trump because I supported him, I voted for him to break the cycle of Uniparty. I don’t think the Uniparty is winning right now. I think the 2018 is going to be a big flush of all Uniparty members. I think the world is going to force our hand and it is not going to look good for both Dems and Rinos. I think the new Dems are not going to tow the line for the old Dems. Looking forward to Monday.
Given their record on actually doing [or failing to do] what they have promised, one can be sure that the GOP will vote with the Democrats on any impeachment of Trump, Pence, and if they could anyone who supports them. If voting by the people has no effect on policy, then voting is moot. I don’t think they will like the alternatives to electoral politics.
I don’t even care if Democrats impeach Trump. I’m not voting for current GOP elected officials that don’t have my interests at heart.
As Kurt Schlichter put it in one of his columns, “Trump isn’t our last chance, he’s your last chance”.
Stick that in your craw gope and….
It is absolutely true that President Trump must remain President in order for Bannon and President Trump to complete the take over of the GOPe.
That means the GOP must remain in control of congress. Does the GOP deserve to remain in control of congress. Absolutely not as of today. But President Trump does deserve to stay president and that means like it or not we need to keep GOP in control of congress.
So what to do in 2018. If there is a pro Trump alternative in GOP primary vote for them. When general election rolls around make sure you get out and vote GOP. The quickest way to have conservative nationalists populist that support the Trump agenda take over the GOP and congress is by making sure President Trump remains president and the democrats remain out of power.
Anything else risks the GOPE and the uniparty being able to beat back the Trump nationalist populist movement.
please: the GOPe will vote to impeach Trump, out of “principle”.
see flake, McStain ahd Ms Lindsey, just for 3 examples.
There won’t be an impeachment as long as GOP controls the house and if dems take control of either house or senate that is two years worth of extra subpoenas and delays of Trump agenda, zero pro Trump legislation passed and if they have senate zero conservative judges cinfirmed.
Former never Trumpers who confuse old tea party with current nationalist populist Trump movement are not reliable predictors of how to preserve and push forward the Trump nationalist populist agenda and movement.
The quickest way to have conservative nationalists populist that support the Trump agenda take over the GOP and congress is by making sure President Trump remains president and the democrats remain out of power in both houses of congress.
Anything else risks the GOPE and the uniparty being able to beat back the Trump nationalist populist movement.
It only takes 35 solid senate republicans to stop an impeachment. Many of the weak need to be replaced ASAP.
Senators can’t prevent impeachment, they can only prevent conviction, which isn’t on the cards (unless some genuine scandal comes out, of course, in which case he’ll deserve conviction).
Impeachment is a function of the House; conviction is a function of the Senate. Thus, Clinton was impeached but neither convicted nor removed from office.
An impeachment would be a coup.
In any event, we don’t need the likes of Miss Lindsay. We merely primary him and his ilk out and run a GOP candidate – who will likely win, given the democrats are losing elections en mass.
Don’t be stupider than you have to be. Impeachment would not be a coup. And it’s got nothing to do with the senate. The House impeaches, and if Pelosi and her crew get the House back they’re crazy enough to do it even in the full knowledge that the senate will acquit.
People who live in glass mihouses shouldn’t be calling people ‘stupid.’
When you do, you sound about as sophisticated as your avatar.
How strange that people don’t seem to know what impeachment entails or that impeachment is only the first step. The House can impeach until kingdom come, but unless the Senate convicts, nothing happens. I don’t quite get why people equate impeachment with automatic removal from office (this includes the rabid lefties who keep calling for Trump’s impeachment). Geesh, Clinton was impeached and remained president. Short memories, maybe?
The vast majority of the nation can’t even name the three branches of government.
Impeachment is an historical stain, far-reaching into a president’s legacy.
Future generations will study Bill Clinton and mock him – and his idiot wife. He’ll only stand out as a president because he was impeached. (And hopefully because his wife was indicted.) I mean, who else would have heard of Andrew Johnson? (Btw, Johnson was acquitted in the Senate by just one vote.)
Then there’s perv-enabler obama’s legacy. That’ll be a laugh.
I have a simpler idea: We throw the GOPe out of office, and if Democrats want to overthrow an election we start a civil war?
You’re not just crazy but dangerously crazy, need-to-be-locked-up crazy.
Stupid!
“…if Democrats want to overthrow an election we start a civil war?”
You worded that wrong, since, as in 1860-1861, “Overthrowing an election is starting a civil war!”
Showing Lindsey Graham as any face of the GOP doesn’t work. He’s got two brains; one’s lost and the other is looking.
— ‘looking’ where Kevin Spacey is probably looking.
Primary the RINOs & give Trump the support these bitches won’t.
Exactly, you fight the battle for the soul of your party in the primaries. You fight for the direction of your nation in the general election.
Do your job for a change senator and there won’t be need of this conversation.
Keep Republicans in power? Yes, but different Republicans. Most of the present lot of corrupt morons need to be defeated in primary elections.
The party is the problem. The party establishment and those who fund it put these people in office, and own them. We need some congressmen and senators who are concerned about the good of the country, and are responsible to their voters, not appeasing the party bosses and implementing the agenda bought by those who fund the party.
We’re not going to just vote you morons out, we’re replacing you with real Republicans.
Real Americans you mean?
Again, people who love the children should not play hard ball. If you are above the law you are outside the law and not protected by the law.
If Trump is impeached, Pence becomes President. Where’s the downside?
There’s no downside in that. The problem is that if Pelosi & crew get hold of the House they’ll impeach both Trump and Pence, on whatever bullshit charges they can think up. Neither will be convicted, but the Ds are now crazy enough to do it anyway. They weren’t as recently as 18 months ago, but they are now.
Stupid!
No. If Trump is impeached by the House; this just means that they have found compelling reason to move forward with charges (i.e., they act like a grand jury, acknowledging sufficient evidence for a trial).
The trial itself takes place in the Senate. The charges are reviewed and the Senate then either convicts or not. If a president is convicted (and this has never happened in our nation’s history), the Senate can indeed remove the impeached president from office because conviction by the Senate results in automatic removal from office.
This is the opening shot in the second battle War on the Swamp. The first was the election of DJT. Now the battle is shaping up for Control of the Congress. This is not going to be Republican v Democrat, but Establishment v Anti-Establishment. And, it is a dangerous time. The GOP Congress Critters know that many of them stand a good chance of being primaried out, in 2018, because they refuse to keep their promises to the electorate. So, now they are not even attempting to disguise the fact that they have no intention of working FOR their constituents and have retreated to the “lesser of two evils campaign”. They are now promising to screw us all over to a lesser extent than the Dems.
Gotta love the honesty now being displayed in Washington.
Which was a more dangerous time: after Trump won, but before he took office (and obama was still in charge), or now, with the Crying Boehners in their death-throes, willing to sell-out our nation to keep their perks?
The status quo is unacceptable so voting the RINOs and Never Trumpers out is what must be done. There will be much Sturm und Drang and rending of garments. Buy popcorn futures.
This is just a more explicit version of the same threat they tell us every election. The GOPe stays in power through the monopolistic tactic of limiting consumer choice.
Every election cycle, they do their damnedest to eliminate all primary challengers to the incumbent. Then, they make the election a Sophie’s Choice for their base: elect Our Guy, or a Democrat who’s even worse.
Sorry, but in 2018 it is almost mathematically impossible to lose the Senate. There has never been a better time to purge the party.
“There has never been a better time to purge the party.”
Precisely.
And may the purge be as public a humiliation as it has been for corker, flake, bush and boehner.
Btw way, “news” from the Amazon Post. (More like the usual democrat marching orders to the GOPe hacks:)
How Republicans can heed Flake’s stirring call to action:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/10/25/how-republicans-can-heed-flakes-stirring-call-to-action/