Day 932 Friday July 26, 2019
467 Days until the 2020 election and 549 days until the Inauguration
One thing Trump and the Republicans have done is really make me learn about our form of government, both the history and the documents and debates.
When Justice Stevens died I was reminded of my first brush with this sort of thing. It was his dissenting opinion on the DC gun law. It you want to understand the second amendment read his opinion. If you want to see an example of legal “argle-bargle” read Scalia’s majority opinion.
Mueller and his report are fascinating in that here is a report and a man who do not waver. You want to know what he thinks on the subject he was charged to investigate? Read the report. You want to know what he thinks on the matter? Read the report.
Does he think the president should be impeached? Not his call.
Does he think Congress should impeach the president? Not his call.
Was Trump guilty of Obstruction of Justice? Not his call.
Can a sitting president be indicted? No.
Can a president be indicted after leaving office? Yes.
For crimes he committed while in office? Yes. (Thank a Republican for that answer> Backfired!!!)
etc. etc. etc.
The case for impeachment is interesting. Originally, the founding fathers were only going to put in bribery and treason as reasons for getting rid of a president, but they also realized that there could be other reasons to get rid of a president and not wait for the term to run out. They debated how to word this. They didn’t want a political hit job, nor did they want it to be necessarily be a crime. They had examples of what would and would not constitute a reason to get rid of a sitting president. This was not vague. It might be a crime, but it had to be grievous – a high crime. It could be behavior that endangered the country – not a crime but a misdemeanor or maybe not. Was it criminal? Was it political? Yes and no. It was both and it was neither. It’s kind of like jumping over a line on side to the other: political/criminal/neither/misdemeanor/egregious.
The question then comes up as to what is the duty of Congress in regards to impeachment? There are three areas the Constitution says Congress has the power to act: Bribery, Treason, and High Crimes and Misdemeanors. If the President commits any of these three violations does Congress have a duty? Yes. They must investigate. It is not political. It may be criminal. But it is the duty to protect “We the people.”
The question is, in this case is it impeachable?
Much of what Trump has done can be argued that Trump did not do any of these things. Stupid, incompetent, did not know it was a crime can be argued. If he obstructed the investigation into Russian interference, then we are in the territory of impeachment proceedings.
One can not say we shouldn’t investigate because he’s our guy, nor can they say we should investigate because we don’t like him. This should not be political or criminal, yet it is both while being neither. It is a higher calling. One that neither opponents or supporters are willing to address.
This does not bode well for our country as it was constituted many years ago.
Meanwhile the leader of the Senate is rushing to get more lifetime appointments of conservative judges shoved down our throats. Trump has filed paperwork to try and prevent New York State from seeing his taxes. What ever happened to the Secretary of the Treasury refusing to hand over the IRS stuff on Trump to Congress?
Don’t you wonder if Trump is such a brilliant businessman and such a great scholar (he went to the best schools) then why doesn’t he want to crow about it? (Okay, it’s obvious. The guy was enrolled at the best schools. Did little or nothing while there. Lost tons of money in various business deals. Got into criminal activities like money laundering. Also had a penchant for lying, cheating, and fabricating falsehoods. He keeps slipping out of it. Will he slip out of the biggest con of his life? He might. Don’t count him out. )
467 Days until the 2020 election and 549 days until the Inauguration
PS The Night Watch with scanning robot
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