The Left’s same lame game is afoot—anile, redundant, and destined for failure.
In his incisive legal analysis, Andrew McCarthy notes how the absence of a formal vote to commence the impeachment inquiry and the failure (at present) to issue subpoenas would invoke due process safeguards for the president, his administration, and other potential witnesses and/or custodians of sought after materials.
He is correct, but if one doubts him, there is a more elementary political rule of thumb to follow: if Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) thought taking a vote to commence a formal impeachment inquiry was good for her Democratic caucus, there would have been a vote. No matter how the Speaker publicly rationalizes the absence of a vote (and accompanying subpoenas), her caucus’ inaction speaks louder than her words.
Why then did she flout tradition and precedents and potentially risk her House majority to unilaterally announce the impeachment “inquiry” and foist this partisan sham upon the public? Because Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s FISA report is pending for public release; and, more importantly, U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation proceeds apace to uncover the murky origins and operations of the Russiagate scam.
In what at root is a purely defensive maneuver, this impeachment “inquiry” is a desperate exercise in partisan messaging, equal parts appeasement of the Democrats’ Trump deranged regressives and obfuscation (at all costs—including the Democrat majority) of the Department of Justice’s investigation of the Obama administration’s potential misfeasance, malfeasance, and/or criminality regarding the Russiagate scam.
In short, as Julie Kelly trenchantly warned: the Democrats are hoping to draw a false moral equivalence between the bogus Ukrainegate and the bogus Russiagate to wear out the public, who they hope will just wave their hands and declare a pox on both houses when all of this comes out—even though both scams were products of the Democrats weaponizing the power and procedures of the federal government for partisan gain.
Aware of this new hoax, and knowing their credibility and—in instances of leaking—potential to be charged with criminality is on the line, the collusion media who aided and abetted Russiagate is—well, aiding and abetting Ukrainegate. Again, the crux of their message is false equivalence. Nevermind that this could only apply in their minds if the malfeasance and criminality believed to be at the root of the Russiagate scam is exposed as true. Never mind that President Trump was acting within his authority as president in requesting the help of Ukraine in a legitimate investigation whereas the Obama Administration was concocting an investigation for political reasons. Right now, the collusion media are gaslighting the Americans who are willing to believe them that it is Trump who has weaponized the government against his political enemies.
To advance this false moral equivalence, the collusion media’s most useful tool would be a Republican—the more prominent the better—to buy into their mendacity; amplify it; and, thus, serve as a cudgel to bludgeon other Republicans into line and break from President Trump’s ranks. For the collusion media and their Democratic cohorts, U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was only too happy to fit the bill.
Whatever one thinks of his motives or his stance, Sen. Romney will now intensify the collusion media’s pressure upon his fellow GOP senators to disavow and dump Trump based upon Ukrainegate (and its prospective sequel, Chinagate). Already, Senators Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.), Joni Ernst (R.-Iowa), and Ron Johnson (R.-Wis.) have drawn particular collusion media cross-examination and Left-wing social media invective for not abandoning the president; and the remainder of the caucus will receive the same sort of pressure to varying degrees. For the GOP Senate caucus, the collusion media will tacitly frame the choice as one between the old ploy of “strange new respect” (until Trump’s gone) or public execration in perpetuity.
Thus do the Democrats and their collusion media partners garner a three-fer: it further engenders the illusion amongst the Democrats’ regressive base that the impeachment inquiry is real; it further distances the president from some GOP senators heading into the 2020 election; and, most of all, it advances the lie that there exists a moral equivalence between the Ukrainegate and Russiagate scandals.
That last point, however, is true in a way they don’t want you to notice. For there is a moral equivalence in both scandals: The leftists perpetuating both of them are morally culpable and must be held to account.