The Democrats Enlist Elitist Leftist Eggheads to Make Their Case For Impeachment. Yeah, That’ll Play in Flyover Country. So Do Continue!
I haven’t written about the ongoing impeachment farce because, well, it’s so farcical. But events in the last few days deserve some comment.
First, the “Intelligence” Committee’s impeachment report. It reminds me of what one would expect a constipated man who binged on Ex Lax to produce. To summarize–and I think quite fairly–its central claims are that (a) it is an impeachable offense for the President to have policy differences with the bureaucracy that is Constitutionally subordinate to him, and (b) it is also impeachable for a politician to practice politics, if he is sufficiently loathed by the other political party.
Second, today’s hearings in the Judiciary Committee, which is more aptly named the Prejudicial Committee, because clearly the fix is in.
The “witnesses” in today’s proceeding were three hard left law professors (but I repeat myself) and one exception who proves the rule–Jonathan Turley, who though hardly conservative, isn’t a hard-core leftist. And of course he wasn’t asked any questions.
Several of the witnesses were literally prejudiced, having found grounds to impeach Trump within days of his taking office, for such things as tweets.
One witness, Stanford’s Pamela Karlan, especially debased herself by including Trump’s 13 year old son Barron into her diatribe. Karlan also said:
“Ukraine is on the front lines. They are fighting the Russians over there, so we don’t have to fight the Russians over here.”
That just cracks me up. Trump has so deranged the left that he has turned them into McCarthyite warmongers who see Russkies under every bed and think that Red Dawn is our future if we don’t defend the Donbas.
But as offensive as this display was, my cynical side says–More! Lots more! Please!
It is a testament to the cluelessness of the Democratic leadership in the House, and the governing class (the “elite”) generally, that they actually think that these people are going to play in Peoria, or anywhere outside of, say the Upper West Side, the Beltway, LA, and the Bay Area.
For one thing, most Americans don’t have a lot of respect for academics. Indeed, a lot of Americans despise academics. And as an academic, who has been in academia for 30+ years, I can say they have substantial justification for those beliefs.
It goes ten-fold for legal academics, who combine Americans’ disdain for academics with their loathing of lawyers. Or a three-fer, actually, because many Americans’ disgust with hard-core leftist partisans gets added to the mix.
Apparently the House Democrats believe that Americans will defer to the pronouncements of obviously partisan and prejudiced legal academics. This is quite frankly insane, and illustrates how out of touch those in the ruling class are. The Pamela Karlans of the world loom large in the salons of DC and NY and the Bay Area, but most Americans think they couldn’t screw in a lightbulb, and who would blame their failure on capitalist, patriarchal, racist, homophobic oppression. And they wouldn’t be far off in that judgment.
So, echoing Napoleon (or somebody!), far be it from me to interrupt an enemy when he is in the middle of making a mistake. And in trotting out leftist eggheads to make their impeachment case, the Democrats are definitely making a huge mistake.
So please . . . don’t let me interrupt you!
In other interesting news…
(1) It turns out Kelly Loeffler is a Republican and (gasp) a Trump supporter. Time to boycott ICE/NYSE? You know there will be calls for that
(2) Chicago’s police chief got caught getting drunk with someone he maybe should not have gotten drunk with at Ceres. Does the man not understand that bar’s purpose of existence is to get traders plastered during lunch?
Comment by Abe Froman — December 4, 2019 @ 8:03 pm
@Abe–I saw about Ernie Johnson at Ceres. He probably understood very well! He just thought he could handle it.
You can get tipsy just walking by that place. There, if you tried the old John Lee Hooker one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer you’d be comatose.
Re Loeffler (whom I know slightly)–CME/CBT has always had a decided Democrat bent. Perhaps that’s pragmatism and geography rather than ideology. But it is interesting to see that ICE apparently leans the other direction. Though who knows. Maybe the Sprechers are like the Conways 😛
Comment by cpirrong — December 4, 2019 @ 9:51 pm
Karlan was considered for a Supreme Court by Obama, but was rejected as too radical.It’s all that we need to know about her.
Comment by mmt — December 5, 2019 @ 6:02 am
Whenever I see an assembly of academic lawyers I wonder that there’s never a lunatic shooter there when you want one. Why do the arseholes always shoot up schools or the like when instead they could do society some good?
Comment by dearieme — December 5, 2019 @ 7:21 am
Seriously, why does the US not have a centerist party yet? Both parties, first the Republicans and then the Democrats have moved to such extremes that there is a yawning chasm in the middle that is occupied by nobody…
Sure, the left and right primary voters wouldn’t be into it but:
A: Who cares?
B: That’s kinda the point…
Comment by HibernoFrog — December 5, 2019 @ 8:10 am
The impeachment inquiry in the House was a cover operation for the witness list. Those ‘witnesses’ didn’t really witness anything at all, so why were they there?
They were either 1) perps who had a hand in the dossier or 2) leaked classified information.
I speculate that some of them have already been questioned by Durham & Co., and know that the heat is on.
So the spectacle was arranged to provide them with the ‘I am being prosecuted because I testified…’ defense. Of course, it is the other way around, they testified because they knew they were subjects/persons of interest of an investigation.
This sordid travesty is a perfect trap for the coup. Perfect, as in “I had a perfect conversation…”.
Comment by Richard Whitney — December 5, 2019 @ 2:49 pm
Regarding the Dems’ academic witnesses – as they used to say about 1980s sitcoms:
‘And these are the ones that made it THROUGH the selection process – imagine how bad the rejected ones were’.
Fox should give Karlan her own television show.
Comment by Ex-Global Super-Regulator on Lunch Break — December 5, 2019 @ 8:13 pm
Yup, the snippets I accidentally saw on Twitter were all rather bizarre, but honestly, apart from a few wonks, who’s actually watching the proceedings nowadays?
Looking forward to your take on the NATO conference… (“Bring our boys home! The ungrateful bastards don’t deserve our protection!”)
@Richard Re “The impeachment inquiry in the House was a cover operation for the witness list.” Wow. Are you suggesting this conspiracy is masking a deeper plot?? Perhaps its a conspiracy wrapped up in confusion wrapped up in paranoia?
Comment by David Mercer — December 6, 2019 @ 5:12 am
“Indeed, a lot of Americans despise academics”
As your analyst would say: “Finally Craig, we’re getting somewhere. How does this make you feel?”
Comment by David Mercer — December 6, 2019 @ 5:15 am
In
Soviet RussiaProgressive America, you will be called racist for ridiculing racism: https://twitter.com/Liz_Cheney/status/1201956909089271809Comment by Ivan — December 6, 2019 @ 11:24 am
SWP:
Yes, it is OT, but couldn’t resist, since you always enjoy a good Rogozin tale:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/russias-opposition-leader-hilariously-mocks-the-leader-of-roscosmos/
Cheers,
VP VVP
Comment by Vlad — December 6, 2019 @ 1:11 pm
@Vlad–always up for a good Rogozin the Ridiculous story. Thanks!
But no mockery could every do justice.
Comment by cpirrong — December 9, 2019 @ 9:44 pm