highdesert wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:07 am
K9s wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:21 am
Ylatkit wrote: Thu Jan 14, 2021 1:16 am
Maybe for you. If I were set against you, my lawyer would get in touch, because there's plenty of ambiguity there. It depends on where you're standing and what you want to see. It's why we have lawyers.
Tell me this: if it's so clear, how is McConnell ignoring it with impunity? There's only a few hundred Democrats there, with dozens of law degrees, how is it clear to you, but all those folks missed it?
Lawyers are irrelevant and unnecessary. This isn't a court of law.
McConnell still makes the rules for the Senate for the next week. He has been giving every Dem the finger for a decade or more. Why would he stop now? He just wants the new Senate to waste time on this instead of removing Trump.
Impeachment is a political process, but it has a legal framework which is the Constitution. Tom Cotton of AR has already voiced opposition to a trial because Trump will be out of office. That's the same argument that I expect Trump's lawyers to assert in federal courts all the way up to SCOTUS. The House apparently already delivered the impeachment article to the Senate but it's in recess and apparently McConnell and most senators don't want to return for a trial so they'll stay away until January 19th. Then it's up to Schumer who is a lawyer and understands the uncharted minefield he's walking into if he starts the process of an impeachment trial.
The Republicans who voted for impeachment are already getting pushback.
Cheney, the No. 3 in the House Republican leadership as the GOP Conference Chair, is getting flak from the Wyoming Republican Party and her congressional colleagues.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus circulated a petition Wednesday to force a vote on a resolution calling on Cheney to resign from her post. The resolution states Cheney's position "has brought the Conference into disrepute and produced discord." The Wyoming GOP issued a lengthy statement early Thursday lambasting Cheney. The party alleges its received harsh comments from its members saying, "Our telephone has not stopped ringing, our email is filling up, and our website has seen more traffic than at any previous time."
Those comments accused Cheney of aligning herself with "the beltway elites" and "with leftists."
Katko and Rice were also slammed by their state's conservative groups. So far, however, those organizations have yet to comment on whether they will continue to support the lawmakers through the end of their terms.
The Conservative Party of New York State said the organization was "very disappointed" in Katko's vote in favor of impeachment. The organization said, "We consider his action ill-informed. It will do nothing to end the national divide and will likely further aggravate it."
South Carolina GOP Chairman Drew McKissick called impeachment a "political stunt" and slammed Rice for voting in favor of it.
"Democrats have been looking for any excuse to get rid of President Trump ever since he set foot in the Oval Office," McKissick said in a statement Wednesday. "We completely disagree with this sham and to say I'm severely disappointed in Congressman Tom Rice would be an understatement."
Kinzinger told the Chicago Sun Times that he may lose close relationships over his vote to impeach Trump.
He said, "I've heard from friends that don't want to be friends with me anymore. I've had family members who are somewhat distant relatives sign a petition disowning me," citing "Bible verses and that I was part of the devil's army. That actually reemboldened me because I believe that we are fighting, you know, against a lot of misinformation, where even people that are Christians have been misled."
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/14/95671424 ... each-trump
This is why the Republican Party is no longer an American party, devoted to the Constitution, to Justice, to Truth and facts. They don't give a FLYING FUCK that the Capitol was invaded by people hunting down the Vice-President, Speaker, and Senate Minority Leader in order to kill them, in fact they (secretly) ENDORSE it! They don't give FLYING FUCK that the President of the United States ORDERED the attack, that he is trying his damnedest to overturn the election and make himself Dictator For Life.
Every damn one of them, attacking Democrats, defending Trump and secretly wishing the attack had succeeded is a traitor through and through. And they will continue to be traitors until we either have a civil war, divide into 2 nations, The United Blue States of America, and Dumfukistan, or enough of them are rooted out, indicted, prosecuted, and sent to prison for Sedition and Insurrection, which should be, if not already, defined as Capital Offenses.
As for McConnell, while he personally detests Trump, his TOP priority is acting in whatever way is necessary to regain his Senate Leadership status, which he loses when Biden, Warnock, and Ossoff are all sworn in probably on the 22 or 23rd (the 2 GA Sens), or, if before that, Murkowski flips, in which case on the 20th. He MAY try to get Manchin to flip, but I doubt Joe will. Much greater power as the keystone to the winning side. As a key Republican, all he could do is help McConnell block legislation. As a key Dem, he can force it to be crafted to meet his and his state's needs.
IF McConnell determines that conviction is best for his chances of regaining the Majority, he'll make it happen. If not, he'll ensure acquittal. He doesn't ACTUALLY care, or if he does, it's less important than regaining the majority.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."