With the gobsmacking, unconscionable election of Trump, nothing is beyond the presidential pale anymore. Nothing. So how about an impeachment scenario that is energizing, convincing and not Robert Mueller-dependent? One that moves relentlessly forward with more names dropping, including that of Mike Pence for being a Biden dirt-solicitor. And just suppose enough Republican senators listen to what remains of their consciences, honor their oaths of office, reclaim their spines and vote for an unprecedented conviction.
If President Trump is removed and Pence is part of the removal, then it’s House Speaker next up: President Nancy Pelosi. And that’s, inexplicably but constitutionally, how America gets its first woman president. Not Hillary Clinton, not Elizabeth Warren, not Kamala Harris, not Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Nothing is beyond this presidential pale. Nothing.
- No way does William Barr recuse himself because he was named in the whistleblower complaint that his office was seemingly covering up. Trump has already fired one recused attorney general.
- “Fed rate too high. They are their own worst enemies. They don’t have a clue. Pathetic!” Vintage Donald Trump.
- “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?” Ditto.
- “If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey.”–More troubling Trump bombast.
- “Biden and his son are stone-cold crooked.” Remember when we had presidents who talked like, well, presidents, not narcissistic bullies and slandering mobsters?
- “It’s time to turn down the lights on the circus.”–That was West Point grad and former Kansas congressman Mike Pompeo during the 2016 campaign urging fellow GOPsters to come to their senses and resist the boorish reality TV act that was Trump. He also warned that Trump would be “an authoritarian president who ignored our Constitution.” As it turned out, he was more prescient than patriotic. And he backed Marco Rubio for president.
- President Trump: “I have a lot of options on China, but if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous, tremendous power.” Tremendously out-leveraged China presumably agrees.
- So Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, senior Trump adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle, are speaking at the University of Florida this week for a $50,000 fee courtesy of UF’s speakers bureau. Security and logistics will not be nominal matters. While Trump more appropriately belongs at the Villages or Bob Jones University instead of UF, the speaking engagement underscores what democratic institutions of higher learning–at their best–are best suited for: providing forums that welcome diverse, often controversial, opinions and the open and free exchange of ideas. As long as public safety isn’t compromised. As long as the rules of engagement are well promoted and fair.
In this case, there will be a Q&A at the end. Unless there is weird screening or filibuster answers, one question likely touches on the appropriateness of Junior’s father using presidential leverage to get dirt on the Bidens via Ukraine and China. In short: “Is this just the logical extension of what we saw when you and your brother-in-law and your dad’s campaign manager met up at Trump Tower with Russians for dirt–disguised feebly as adoption updates–on Hillary Clinton? You know, the one that prompted that infamous ‘I love it!’ from you. And a follow-up, if I may: What politically non-partisan charity is the $50,000 going to? And is it embarrassing that Pitbull was paid a lot more ($130,000) for his talk at UF last year?”
- “Eight more years.” What Trump worked to elicit from his rally crowd at the Villages.
- “They want to raid Medicare to fund a thing called socialism.”–What else resonated at the Villages–besides the sounds of “We’re Not Going to Take It” by Twisted Sister.
- Speaking of the Villages, we were reminded that Gov. Ron DeSantis, the beneficiary of a subterranean low-bar comparison with Rick Scott, is still an embarrassing Trump lackey-enabler with further political plans beyond Tallahassee. He and his wife were prominent props in the staged back-drop behind Trump.
- “When America fails to lead, global chaos inevitably follows.” That was Sen. Marco Rubio–but not recently. Rubio said that–and more–when he was facing off with Trump during the primaries. We remember, even if the erstwhile “Little Marco” seemingly doesn’t.
- Not that it matters enough to matter anymore, but how hypocritically ironic that the one targeting Biden and son over alleged family scheming is the avatar of nepotism. From Fred Trump to Donald Trump to the grandiose kids.