Impeachment Did Not Die

No, Virginia. Impeachment Did Not die on July 24th .

 No it did not. The hope that Robert Mueller would be the kind of hero our Nation needed him to be - the kind of hero he was as a Marine - that did die on July 24,2019; and with it the Democrats strategy of letting his live testimony move the needle with the Public. That did not happen.

Instead, the removal of Donald Trump now needs a new strategy. One more nuanced, and also one more fitting the ruthless dishonesty of the Republican opposition. It's time now to start the Impeachment, not end it.

Many say there is a danger that it could backfire on Democrats the way the Clinton Impeachment backfired on Newt's Republicans.  But I disagree vehemently and I have a strategy that will prevent that. I'll outline it in a moment.

But first, think back to Bill Clinton and his disgraceful handling of a disgraceful affair with Monica Lewinsky.  Like today, the economy was thriving. But Clinton continued to govern while he co-operated with the nastiest of  Republican Prosecutors, Kenneth Starr. Most men and women in 1999 agreed that it was not an Impeachable offense. It was sordid, sad, unethical, immoral, but not High Crimes & Misdemeanors. Not Impeachable. What he lied about was having sex with his intern - something most adult men in this Country knew they would also lie about if caught in that situation. Starr's sordid past since that time, notwithstanding, I believe most of the country was as disgusted with Ken Starr's behavior as they were with Bill Clinton's. 

And consequently the Republicans paid the price for hounding him like a dog with a bone, then  Impeaching him; and generally being as bad and as obsessive as he was. Republicans lost big in the next election.  But Clinton's Impeachment was not over his conspiracy with a Foreign adversary; or lying 10,000 times in Office; or leading a band of thieves, spies and grifters into the White House; nor money-laundering, nor bribery.  It was because he was a bad liar about a blow-job in the Oval. Trump gave away State secrets to the Russians in the Oval, for christsake. Clinton's approval rating also soared because of all the hypocrisy of the holier than thou Republicans led by Newt Gingrich,  who had recently humiliated his own wife while she was in the hospital with cancer.

Donald Trump, with his stupid remarks and stupid smirk, cuts a much less sympathetic figure to middle America than even an embarrassed Bill Clinton did. They love Trump inside the Fox News bubble, but his grip is tenuous on the moderates of both parties. Trump's vulnerabilities are off the charts.

Furthermore, when Bill Clinton was President and the Republicans Impeached him, the Nation had been at Peace for years, and few knew anything about the Jihads to come. It was Peace & Prosperity and they Impeached him for lying about a blow-job. That is far, far from the situation we find ourselves in today, Madame Speaker.

Yes, the economy is doing well , but what else is similar?

In 2019 we have a President guilty of High Crimes & Misdemeanors, of an abject failure to perform the duties of the Presidency or to defend the Nation against all enemies foreign & domestic. We have a man clearly unfit for the office he holds because he is morally and psychologically bankrupt. Yes, and once we see his taxes we may learn how close he was to being financially bankrupt again when he started his campaign in 2015 & 2016.  He never expected to win the Presidency, but he did expect to enrich himself and his family in the process. There's ample evidence of that, enough to constitute at least two of the Articles of Impeachment.  Since then,  he has indeed enriched himself mightily at the Public trough, so I'll wager his balance sheet looks way better in 2017 & 2018. 

Pelosi need not worry that Trump would be a sympathetic character that middle America wants to look up to, and to have their children see & hear everyday on their Televisions. Will they want to vote for 4 More Years as they listen to the House getting the Impeachment process started,  exposing him on LIVE TV everyday?   Oooh, that's a bad mental picture !

No - on the contrary. Here is how to do it without ever running that risk of a backlash. 

The House begins an Impeachment Inquiry now, thus strengthening and speeding the process of getting (silenced) witnesses to testify and tell the truth -  or be confined & fined until they do.

Remember Susan MacDougal?  Republicans were not afraid to do it !!  They never are.
Put down the cake-knife, Democrats, and try fighting this knife-fight with a stilleto. Our Democracy depends on you.  Call McGahn, Hicks, Donaldson, Don Jr., Flynn, Sessions, Christie, Bannon, Pruitt, et.al.

Order them arrested by the Sargent at Arms if they refuse to testify.  Fill the airwaves and the Nation's Newspapers with headlines every day from now until October 2020, but ....
slow walk this thing right up to the eve of Election Day 2020, and Vote your Impeachment Articles in great detail, right before the Election.

Call the Vote to Impeach him the night before the Election.
All Pelosi has to do is stall the Impeachment Hearings by scheduling the up or down Vote on November 2 at 11pm. Let the Senate wait, unable to convene for even one Vote, because they will not have anything to Vote on. 

Don't give McConnell and his traitors a chance to even open debate on it. Not one day. Not half a day. Dirty politics, you say? Unfair?  No, it's Mitch McConnell's style of politics, that's all. Kill your enemy, don't just defeat him. Kill Health Care. Kill election security. Kill campaign finance law. Kill sensible gun laws. Kill Obama's rightful Supreme Court appointee.
 
Do it this way, Madame Speaker, and they cannot get the Win by finding him innocent. Instead, the stench of Donald Trump's Crimes & Misdemeanors will still be floating in the air as we all go to the Polls. Let the people Vote on November 3, 2020 with the cloud of Impeachable offenses all over his orange face.