Unbelievable Part 3

I’ll say this for Trump: the Tangerine Wankmoggot can bend time. The scandals are so fast and furious that you can’t believe the last one was only two days ago.

Remember this? That was three years ago, right? Wrong. It was eight months ago. See what I mean?

Back in February (was it really only this year?), my inclination was to agree with Nancy Pelosi when she said impeaching Trump wasn’t worth the bother. (Aside from anything else, I knew her being so dismissive would drive him mad.)

I know she’s taken a lot of flak for this. According to various pundits she was making a political calculation about the impact impeachment might have on Democratic control of the House of Representatives, seeing this as the greater good.

The Republicans had certainly taken a drubbing after they impeached Clinton. But let’s be honest: as sordid as it was, there is a wide world of difference between a president soliciting a blow job from a naïve intern and a president doing pretty much anything Trump has done since he was in office. The impeachment of Clinton really was a Republican witch hunt and American voters knew that. (Voters already knew when they elected him in 1992 that he couldn’t keep his fly zipped and they’d re-elected him in 1996.)

Impeachment hadn’t removed Clinton from office nor is an impeachment proceeding against Trump by the House of Representatives going to remove Trump – not while Moscow Mitch has a breath left in his body.

My concern back in February (which I’d like to think was also a factor for Pelosi) was that sixteen Republican senators might just make a calculation of their own and decide that dumping Trump was better for their longterm survival. They might actually vote to remove him from office.

And that would give a President Mike Pence nearly two years to settle in as the Republican incumbent. But, I hear you say, nothing could be as bad as Trump. Tell that to gay and trans people, tell that to a woman seeking an abortion. A Pence presidency would be a borderline apocalypse for them.

Is Trump guilty of “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors”? Yes, of course he is, pretty much every time he draws an amoral breath. His corruption is so breathtaking you almost become numb to it. Seriously suggesting the next G7 meeting should be held at a Trump hotel? Naming a major donor as the US ambassador to the United Nations? Personally enriching himself by forcing Pence to stay in a Trump hotel in Ireland and air force crew to stay in a Trump hotel in Scotland? Mindboggling, yes, but does it get much more than an eye roll?

But using the Oval Office phone to tacitly threaten withholding much needed aid to Ukraine if the country’s newly elected president  Volodymyr Zelensky doesn’t help him by digging up dirt on Joe Biden and his son? I believe that’s known as crossing the Rubicon.

And so it’s time for an impeachment inquiry. If nothing else, at least calling it this might allow the House to finally get its collective hands on Trump’s tax returns.

There are not sixteen Republican senators who would – for sake of their own political future or for the sake of the country – vote to take the impeachment to trial in the Senate. Not that Mitch McConnell is likely to give them a chance to vote on it. (Merrick Garland, anyone?) President Pence will remain a nightmare. For now.

So, is this just an exercise in futility? No. Enough is enough. (Okay, let’s be honest, enough was probably enough on the day after the Wankmaggot was inaugurated.) Even though everyone, including – especially – Pelosi, can clearly see how this is going to play out, this is the House of Representatives doing its checks and balances job, as envisaged by those sainted founding fathers of theirs.

Best of British to you, Nancy.