Trump Makes Front Page News!

As only the third president to be impeached, today's vote was a significant vote--very historical! That has put him in something of a very special minority. But it should also be noted, if Trump was a little bit put out that he did not make the cover of Time Magazine as the Person of the Year (I think I did detect a whiff of sour grapes) at least he can take some consolation that he will definitely be on all of the front pages now.

You might suppose that, in response to this historic event, Trump might have tried to cover himself with at least a little sangfroid to demonstrate he wasn't even in the least bothered. If you did suppose that, however, I don't know whose act you've been watching all these years, because what he actually did was take the time to, during his campaign rally, suggest that a revered elder statesman was looking up from hell while patting himself on the back for assisting in the late congressman's getting the funeral honors he had earned during a lifetime of service while also taking his digs at the gentleman's widow, a current sitting congresswoman.

In other words, he was true to form. Sad!

If there was any hope he could take heart in the certainty that there is simply no likelihood that the GOP-majority Senate would vote to remove him from office, there is a great possibility that Senate Majority Leader McConnell's mouth has already snatched defeat from the jaws of an easy win. Democratic House Speaker Pelosi has suggested that the articles of impeachment might be delayed in being sent to the Senate to see exactly how the trial would be handled first.

This seems to me to be the right thing to do. The House Judiciary Committee extended an invitation to Trump to participate in the hearing on the constitutional basis for impeachment. (Trump via his lawyer declined.)  He and his supporters have claimed a lack of "due process" which rises to the level of histrionic and ahistorical (Witch trials? Pontius Pilate? when Trump is facing neither hanging nor crucifixion, but only a Senate trial) which have nothing to do with actual process and everything to do with having no actual fact-based defense of what Trump has done. (Trump, by the way, is the last person who should sit comfortably making a due process argument about the death penalty.)  His supporters ignored the facts and whined about process.

Well then, great. Here's a chance to have a stellar, non-sham process in the Senate. Instead of a rubber-stamp acquittal like the approval of his barely-qualified judicial nominations. You know, the kind of swift rush to exonerate a man that would sort of always look a little too rushed? The kind that doesn't even merit the term "trial"? The kind that always leaves a guilty little asterisk next to Trump's name--impeached by the House, but you know.  Mitch McConnell's wife works for Trump. And Lindsey Graham. You know the kind of man he is....

There is also another benefit to delay beyond any pressure it places on the Senate. This presidency is scandal-plagued. The turnover in White House staff, cabinet members, etc. for various reasons is all a part of the failure of leadership that goes to the very top--Trump himself. He said he would pick the very best people--has he? He said he'd drain the swamp--is that so? There will be other whistleblowers.  The story of Trump's financial records is not over. There are still lawsuits and SCOTUS decisions pending. An entire shoe store remains to fall, and I personally think this favor the long game. It is likely--I think, per the odds--Republicans will come to rue siding with this man.

Maybe that's just my opinion. But I say Trump's dealings look bad because they are bad, and it's because he's bad.  And I don't think a hidden good guy sits in that stage-makeup'd and grifting body.