At the risk of sounding as if I’m repeating myself: Donald Trump is really starting to pi** me off.
As in royally, man!
I happen to subscribe to the Speaker Nancy Pelosi doctrine of presidential impeachment. She doesn’t want to impeach the president. She knows how divisive such an act would be. She also can count votes.
The speaker likely has the votes in the House to actually approve articles of impeachment. The Senate, though, is far more problematic. Why? Because it is full of Republican cowards who are afraid to stand up to a president who is usurping their constitutional authority to investigate the executive branch of government.
And this is where my anger really boils at Donald Trump.
He has “instructed” a former White House counsel to skip a House committee hearing. The ex-counsel, Don McGahn — the guy who said Trump ordered him to fire special counsel Robert Mueller in an effort to obstruct the probe in the “Russia thing” — has agreed with the president. He won’t show up.
Therefore, we have another demonstration of presidential executive overreach.
The court system has declared that Trump must turn over his financial records to Congress; the president will defy that order, too.
Trump has instructed his entire White House staff to ignore congressional subpoenas, angering the legislative inquisitors even more.
Thus, we now have a situation that Pelosi described not long ago. Donald Trump is “goading” the House to impeach him knowing that he would survive a Senate trial that is still run by Republicans. Indeed, only one GOP House member has declared that Trump has committed offenses worthy of impeachment. The Senate GOP caucus? Crickets.
I get the argument that some are pushing that House Democrats have a “constitutional duty” to seek impeachment if the president continues to flout the law. I also understand the political consequences of the House impeaching and the Senate letting the president wriggle off the hook.
This guy, Donald Trump, is giving me a serious case of heartburn. No amount of Pepto is going to cure it.