In the rush of debate and intra-Democratic acrimony about impeachment over the weekend, I wanted to link back to this post from last August. Some of the details are different. But the gist is really the same. Many people who are furious at the President’s crimes and coverups want him impeached right now and think anything short of immediate of articles of impeachment amounts to some kind of civility fetish or refusal to fight his lawlessness. That’s not true. The problem with immediate impeachment is that it takes focus away from investigations which can actually have an effect. I would add that if you want to take the existing and on-going investigations and rebrand the Judiciary committee’s probe as an impeachment inquiry, fine, whatever — as long as it is truly open-ended and can run indefinitely. In any case, I encourage you to read this post.
I’ve been exchanging emails with various TPM Readers over the course of the day. If anything it’s tending to confirm my sense that the intra-Democratic acrimony over impeachment is driven less by disagreement than the understandable intensity of people’s feelings and anger over President Trump.
For example I’ve had a number of readers take issue with my viewpoint on this or ‘Democratic leaders’ (I scare quote only to make clear it usually isn’t specific to an individual) say, “No one is saying he should be impeached right away!” Read More
Before border militia leader Larry Mitchell Hopkins was arrested over the weekend after detaining migrants trying to cross the border (he was arrested on a firearms charge) the FBI learned that Hopkins was telling people he and his militia “were training to assassinate George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, because of these individuals’ support of Antifa.”
“Projected warming over the next century will likely place global temperatures in a range not seen in millions of years of geologic history,” according to a newly issued summary by the American Meteorological Society of the current state of play on climate change:
I’ve hinted at this in a few posts. It’s time to confront it head on. The White House isn’t doing the standard tussling with Congress about oversight: some stonewalling, some negotiation, taking some questions of privilege to court. It’s more accurately characterized as massive resistance. The Congress has a constitutionally mandated responsibility to oversee the executive branch. They are flatly refusing to comply with ordinary document production and testimonial requests across the board. It’s not a difference of degree but of kind. In itself it is an impeachment worthy refusal to follow the constitutionally mandated framework of American government. It’s up to Democrats to make this clear. Read More
Tierney Sneed reports in from today’s Census/Citizenship Question hearing at the Supreme Court.
Nothing else you read today will be as important as this. A corrupt Supreme Court already signaling its support for the GOP’s plan to lock in Republican political dominance against the threat of future majorities.
I just got this very heart-warming note from TPM Reader RM about some earlier book recommendations. I replied by recommending two other books I just finished. So I thought I’d share the recommendations with you as well.
I just want to thank you for your frequent book recommendations. You have been especially helpful to me in finding good reading for my 93-year old mother who is an avid reader and history buff. She is reading the Empires of the Word right now and is really into it. This is probably the 3rd or 4th book rec from you that I’ve given her and they are a hit.
Steve King says facing the House scapegoating him for white supremacist comments gave him “better insight” into what Jesus faced when he was crucified.
I’ve said a number of times that I think impeachment under the present circumstances is a mistake. There are two reasons. The lesser of them is the near impossibility of removing President Trump from office. The greater one is that moving quickly toward impeachment rather that holding it as a cudgel in the process of on-going investigation gets in the way of aggressive investigations. If people want to apply pressure, that’s where to apply it. Yesterday it was revealed that Chairman Cummings had agreed to delay the Oversight Committee’s subpoena deadline until after a court hearing on May 14th, when a court holds a hearing into President Trump’s suit against Cummings and the Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA.
This is a mistake. Read More