RUTHFULLY YOURS

The House impeachment proceedings had a farcical element from start to finish. They began with Adam “Pencil Neck” Schiff making up facts; continued with secret hearings, something a prosecuting party would never do if the facts favored it; moved to a partisan vote on two made-up Articles of Impeachment; and finally, contradicting the Democrats’ earlier insistence that impeachment was an urgent necessity to preserve the nation, the House sat on the Articles of Impeachment for a full month.

Yesterday, with great fanfare, bizarrely slurred speech, strange poetic references, ceremonial pens, and giggles and grins belying Nancy Pelosi’s words about solemnity, the House finally transferred the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. Then, the serious politicking began.

One of Trump’s greatest accomplishments has been to restore the rule of law to the federal court system by appointing judges who are strict constructionists. They apply the Constitution and law as written. This differs from progressive judges who believe that the Constitution and laws are living documents that should be stretched, flexed, folded, spindled, mutilated and, if necessary, judicially rewritten to encompass progressive political and social goals.

To date, 25% of federal lower court judges are Trump appointees and Trump, working with Mitch McConnell, shows no sign of slowing. To preserve their long-standing stranglehold over the federal judicial system, the Democrats must stop more appointments. This is especially true should Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leave the Supreme Court in the near future. For Trump to appoint a third conservative Supreme Court justice would dramatically alter the Court’s judicial philosophy for years, maybe decades.

So it was that, right on cue, failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris stepped up with a procedural demand:

Today, the United States Senate will receive articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump and begin to determine whether the president’s actions warrant his removal from office,” said Harris. “The president is charged with high crimes and misdemeanors, and the Senate must take seriously its constitutional role in this process. During the time when articles of impeachment are before the Senate, it would be wholly inappropriate to advance the president’s nominees to the federal judiciary.

With Democrat primaries looming, there’s another benefit to the Democrats delaying impeachment proceedings as long as possible. Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and, most especially, Bernie Sanders, are all current Senators. Because presidential impeachment is a significant event, all three of them must attend. As long as the proceedings last, they’ll be sidelined from campaigning. They can still tweet and make media appearances, but they can’t go around glad-handing primary voters.

Of the remaining top primary candidates, it will be Biden and Buttigieg who can get up close and personal with the voters. (It’s to be hoped, of course, that Biden doesn’t get too up close and personal with women and little girls. That always looks kind of icky.) Buttigieg is a good speaker and quick on his feet, but black voters haven’t warmed up to him, and it’s unlikely that American voters as a whole will vote for a 39-year-old nonentity who has a mediocre track record as mayor of a mid-sized American city with a crime problem.

And that leaves Joe Biden, although there’s a possibility that the impeachment proceedings will implicate Biden. Because Democrats are desperate to call in witnesses they couldn’t be bothered to question during the rushed House proceedings, they run the risk that President Trump will demand (as he should) that both Joe and Hunter Biden testify. He may also want to call other witnesses who can talk about the way in which Hunter Biden, despite having no qualifications, profited in the Ukraine while that country was part of Vice President Biden’s portfolio. Still, that’s a risk the Democrats are willing to take if it means sidelining Bernie and Warren.

Again, the one thing we know with certainty is that the point of this impeachment is not to remove a president who engaged in treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors in a way that shocked the nation’s conscience. It is, instead, to remove an unusually successful president without the risk of an election; to hamper his ability to function while in office; and to throw a lifeline to Joe Biden’s flailing candidacy.