It would be nice to see life imitating art.
I don’t believe I’ve ever patted myself on the back for making a perfect phone call. But I have now seen a perfect analogy: Tom Tomorrow’s Great Bank Robbery cartoon.
I already posted that link.
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21968199&postcount=4133
Apologies!
A Republican memo bullet points 4 defensive talking points, none of which address the core of why the phone call was a violation of Trumps duty to his countrymen:
"…The July 25 call summary "shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure.
Ukrainian "President (Volodymyr) Zelensky and President Trump have both said there was no pressure on the call.
The Ukrainian government was not aware of the hold on U.S. assistance" during the July 25 call.
The security assistance hold was lifted on September 11. "
Ogod, that is priceless.
I usually hate Tom Tomorrow as being so incredibly tedious, but that is a perfect illustration of the nonsense that Republicans are attempting to pass off as a serious defense.
Here is a photograph of my dashboard which shows my speedometer at 95 mph when I passed the traffic camera. It clearly proves my innocence.
And here’s an earlier photograph of my dashboard which clearly is more important - it shows that I wasn’t moving at all.
Love the fixation on the 911 caller and the signs that say “watch the footage”. Historians will not be kind to this current crop of Republicans- why are they choosing to die on this hill and prostitute their reputations away for this scumbag?
“As a principled libertarian, I believe we should use the full power of the state against this whistleblower!”
<snerk>
- According to Bannon (via Mueller), the RNC was working with WikiLeaks.
- According to Mueller, a number of Republican congressmen were receiving DNC documents from the Russians.
- The NRA seems to have been fronting money to the RNC from Russia.
So that could be an element of their excessive levels of defense.
But, actually, I think the answer is not that.
I saw someone here on the SDMB (probably in this thread) mention a while back that they hoped that no proof that Trump was being blackmailed by Turkey would come out, because what would that do to the country? And that’s someone who was opposed to Trump.
I think that it’s very possible that the cartoon character level of defense for Trump by people like Nunes and Jordan might be because they’re suppressing the extremity of the anxiety that they’d feel if they accepted what is clear from the secure transcripts and conversations that they’ve had with our intelligence agencies. If Trump has done the things that the CIA and FBI believe he has done, then we’ve elected a traitor to the Presidency.
That can’t be and the information must be wrong and a conspiracy against the President! Because…the alternative is that that’s the reality.
Basically, they’re either complicit or the horror of the situation is so grave that it’s better to be complicit.
Not possible if 20 Senators are actually on Trump’s side, and realize that a public vote will acquit him. Article 1 section 5: “the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal”.
ETA: I suppose the majority could decide that the vote should be “secret” and not published with the rest of the journal, but it would be recorded for posterity, and liable for declassification/publication by some future Congress.
~Max
I have to agree with this. I feel the pain of those who want to see Trump held accountable for every one of his outrages—but that must happen after he’s out of office, I fear. Any chance that impeachment-and-trial has of removing him depends upon thwarting the GOP strategy, which is to make 99% of Americans throw up their hands and declare “it’s just too damned complicated.”
Keeping the articles of impeachment to Ukraine alone will still result in masses of GOP water-muddying:
For each of these dubious points the Republicans will offer voluminous mounds of “evidence”. Remember, the rules give the Republicans 45 minutes to lay out their case without interruption. They are going to concentrate on naming dozens (hundreds?) of people who are ‘crucial to understanding’ each of those four talking points, and for each, dozens of “facts” that are, you guessed it, also ‘crucial to understanding’. If the at-home viewers’ heads aren’t spinning at the end of the GOP 45 minutes, I’ll be shocked.
They will make each point seem like an unsolvable mystery–a labyrinth through which no one could make their way.
And if they had six or eight different articles of impeachment, instead of just Ukraine…well, their job of obfuscation would be that much easier.
We’re not going to win over his hardcore 40%. Best we can do is unify a very angry 60% against him.
Any narrative can be muddied enough for the 40% to buy into the mud.
I think the majority can get their heads around three or four offenses of sufficient severity. Can’t see what would bump this one out of the top three.
I doubt if too many people on either side are going to watch the hearings. They’ll rely on their favorite media outlets/pundits to tell them what was said. Just like now.
How about, nobody gave a shit when this was at the height of its publicity. Most Americans just don’t give that much a shit about what happens to people who come here illegally. Yes, I know that a great number were probably legit asylum seekers. Americans don’t give a shit about that either.
And that is the #1 thing Trump fears. As soon as he isn’t President any more, either through impeachment or by losing the next election (dear gods, please let it be one or the other!), there are a slew of charges waiting for him. New York won’t have to fight for his taxes any more. Prosecutors cited him as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Cohen sentencing memo. There are two lawsuits that I’m aware of in DC and Maryland over alleged emoluments violations. Eight members of his election team have already been indicted in relation to the Mueller report. Several women are alleging sexual assault, though I’m unaware of any filing charges. Trump escaped any charges so far entirely due to the “presidential immunity” nonsense. Joe Schmoe off the street can’t claim any kind of immunity.
He’s very,* very *afraid of being a Joe.
Absolutely. And a cornered narcissistic lawless sociopath is a dangerous narcissistic lawless sociopath.