"You can't have them until you play by my rules." Mommy Pelosi

 

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not commit on Wednesday to sending the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Republican-held Senate, a surprise move that injects new uncertainty into Congress' timeline of the President's trial in the chamber.

"That would have been our intention, but we'll see what happens over there," Pelosi said at a post-impeachment vote news conference Wednesday night when asked about sending over the articles.

LIVE UPDATES: The latest on President Trump's impeachment

Some progressives have urged Democratic leaders to withhold the articles until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, agrees to the parameters for the Senate trial that Democrats have called for, as well as agreeing to bring in firsthand witnesses like acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify.

 

 

On Thursday morning, Pelosi used her weekly news conference to express her concern over having a fair trial in the Senate, saying while the Founding Fathers had anticipated the possibility of a rogue President, "I don't think they suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time."

"The next thing for us will be when we see the process that is set forth in the Senate, then we'll know the number of managers that we may have to go forward and who we will choose," Pelosi said. "That's what I said last night, that's what I'm saying now.""   CNN

 

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I watched her weekly-weekly today.  The basic message was that she will not send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate for its action until the senate agrees to conduct Trump's trial  to her taste.  One tires of such words as astonishing but this development calls for hyperbole.  I have been a close student of the US Constitution since I was a boy.  I actually won the American Legion oratorical contest for the State of Maine in 1958 with a presentation on the subject "The Constitution, Ours to Defend."  Well, pilgrims, I am not a constitutional scholar but it does not take much knowledge to know that how the senate does anything, including this, is none of her damned business.

 

IMO what is occurring is a Democratic Party attempt to seize power across the country by parlaying its 2018 House of Representatives victory, control of some state governments (California and Virginia come to mind), its alliance with what Dobbs calls the National Left Wing media and its sissified rich kid agitprop bullies.

 

Good luck on that.  IMO what the Democrats are doing is a preparatory stage for a political disaster in 2020 that will rival Corbyn's.

 

The Democrat's have somehow completely lost their grip on reality.  pl

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/18/politics/nancy-pelosi-sending-impeachment-articles-senate/index.html

Comments

[jonst]

Its very cold in Maine today. Pretty however. I may be really off base here Col, but as I watch the madness of the Dems I today I keep thinking of Yamamoto supposed saying after Pearl Harbor, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”....the Dems are now, openly, and aggressively, moving the fight away from Trump directly, and personally, and now attempting to take on all Republicans, Deplorables, and anyone else who they think is standing in the way ()Gabbard, Taibbi, Greenwald, Dershowitz, and such . Therefore, they are exponentially expanding their enemies. And making said new enemies, or, newly declared, enemies, anyway, feel this fight is personal now. It is no long simply, or just, about Trump. This is almost always a strategic blunder. Just because the Deplorables are not endlessly in the streets, or in the op ed sections, does not mean they are not pissed and getting more so. Nov 2020 is shaping up to be a rather brutal fight.
-

[blue peacock]

Col. Lang

Appreciate your views on this topic as I am an admirer of your stance on the original view of the Constitution and the debates & thinking that preceded it.

This action by Pelosi and the Democratic Party caucus in the House is stunning in its brazenness. They claimed that the Constitution allowed the House to make up its own rules on an impeachment inquiry. They did just that preventing the accused President and the minority in the House from exercising any rights. A complete kangaroo court sham reminiscent of show trials in Communist China.

Now Pelosi sates that she will be the judge of the Senate rules, which the Constitution allows them complete discretion. Nuts!

I hope McConnell has the courage to pass a Senate resolution giving the House 48 hours to send them the Articles of Impeachment or else they will determine that the House impeachment is null and void.

[anon]

It has now gone from impeachment to imorangement.

[Diana C]

Isn't this like the junior high student council president telling the high school student council president what to do and how to do it? Good luck with that. (On second thought, with Adam Schiff and the Squad in the House, Pelosi seems to be more an elementary school student council leader.)

It's a strange, strange time in our political history. My uncle, who has been a big Trump fan from the beginning, received some calls today from people who know him gloating about the impeachment. It was the headline of our local newspaper. Some actually thought it meant he had been kicked out of office entirely. And they say Republican voters are stupid.

Has there ever been as strange a time in regard to our politics? though

[paul rosenberg]

It seems that Nancy Pelosi has decided that our country no longer has a legitimate president but rather a rogue prince pretending to be King. Thus the necessity for the speaker of the house to become the Prime Minister.

[walrus]

Col. Lang, you beat me to it! "a political disaster in 2020 that will rival Corbyn's." Exactly!

The leftlibs everywhere:Britain, America, Australia and also Europe have been captured by what I call "Champagne Socialists". These see themselves as a well educated (by their standards) intelligencia and commentariat who are wedded to minimalist causes - gender equity, gay rights, diversity, racism, environmental malarkey and of course climate change fear mongering.

They thus represent no one but themselves. The real working class are concerned for jobs, pay, health, taxation, family and a future for their kids. These are the folk who elected Donald Trump, defeated Corbyn in Britain, defeated Shorten in Australia in the un-loseable election last year(the bastard had even started packing his house up in preparation for his win!) and who currently man the barricades in France in their gilets jaunes.

We are heartily sick of Corbyns, Pelosis, Shortens, Macrons, Merkels, Thunbergs and all the other sanctimonious clowns!

I think, with luck, Trump will win bigger than ever in 2020 and Pelosi and her acolytes will be flushed down the toilet of history. The Democrats have it coming..

[J]

Trump needs to seek immediately a writ of Mandamus with SCOTUS to order the articles be delivered to the Senate.

[Factotum]

Democrat party is nothing more than a front for the big government unions today. Democrats have to do what the government employee union bosses want - and that is to get rid of President Donald J. Trump who promised he would drain the swamp - and the swamp just happens to be the big government employee unions and their bosses.

There you have it. Unions say no funding for you if you don't do what we demand. That is why you got virtually 100% Democrats voting to impeach. That is why you get the exact same impeachment talking points from your local Democrat Representatives.

That is why the DNC is currently bankrupt - the unions have not yet played their hand and started to back their chosen Democrat nominee and opened their campaign war chests. Where are the small donations from the general populace like Trump is raising? Nope, Democrats work only with major union cash infusions and not the hearts and minds of the American population at large.

[Factotum]

Writ of Mandamus will move this along.

Once this action is also in the Congressional Record it is notice the House completed their duties and now jurisdiction rests 100% in the hands of the US Senate, per US Constitutional mandate.

Nancy Pelosi does not have to dress up as the Western Union delivery boy and hand this over to the Senate personally. The action stands the moment the last vote was called and the results read into the public record. The Senate has all they need.

In the spirit of fair play, they can also have a six hour impeachment hearing just like the Democrats conducted, take the vote and be home by dinner.

[AHB]

Could they be hoping that they will regain the senate in 2020 and have the trial on favorable terms thereafter?

[Factotum]

Main stream media seems disappointed most in the country are taking the Democrats impeachment as just another day, and another Democrat attention getting stunt. They sound genuinely concerned America does not share their hallowed respect for this "historic moment".

[Lawrence Foster]

It's simple - the Senate adopts - on party lines if they need to - the rules of Adam (the lying sack of) Schiff's rules.

[Jack]

Sir

I’m flabbergasted by Nancy’s action to withhold the articles from the Senate until she is satisfied with the Senate trial rules. She further stated, “I don’t think they suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time”. “They” being the framers of the Constitution.

Wow! We now have a unique situation where a partisan majority leader of one chamber of Congress calls out a president and the majority leader of the other chamber of Congress from the opposition party as rogues. What are the political and constitutional implications?

Since the Constitution does not state when impeachment in the House ends and when the Senate trial begins we are clearly in uncharted waters. It would seem that Mitch McConnell could have the Senate pass a resolution stating that a trial will begin on a specific date and if the House doesn’t send their managers to act as the prosecutor the Senate will dismiss the impeachment by default.

[Bill H]

Obama's "If Congress won't act then I will" was merely a signal of things to come. It was not just an imperial presidency, it was the takeover of governance by the Democratic Party. They now think that, regardless of how the American public voted within the various states, the Democratic Party controls the Senate. Elections only count when Democrats win, and even when they don't win, they assume control.

[akaPatience]

I can only hope that some scion of Justice Antonin Scalia exists on the Supreme Court who will lead an effort to shoot down these too-clever-by-half measures being taken by the Sorest Losers Of All Time. First the Democrats threw precedent into the garbage heap and changed House impeachment procedures which, simply put, effectively denied the POTUS due process. Now they want to dictate terms to the Republican-controlled US Senate. Huh???

Although even liberal polls show they've lost significant support as they've continued their impeachment process with saccharine solemnity, they can't seem to help themselves anymore. They became totally unhinged because of Trump's 2016 victory but his successful record seems to have turned them into blathering, self-destructive lunatics. Madame Marbles In Her Mouth Speaker and her caucus grow more schizoid by the day, having impeached POTUS yesterday only to turn around and pass his re-negotiated North American trade agreement today which will at last help to undo the giant sucking sound of jobs leaving the US that Ross Perot presciently predicted in 1992.

Don't the House Democrats realize their MSM cheerleaders aren't representative of the voting public?

[J]

So Schiff wants to impeach Pence as well as Trump.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/12/breaking-adam-schiff-sets-eyes-on-pence-tells-msnbc-hes-acquired-evidence-from-vice-presidents-office-on-ukrainian-investigation/

[catherine]

From the WP back on Sept 24
Tell me how what Menendez, Durbin and Leahy re telling the Ukraine to cooperate with Mueller is any different from Trump.
Or how Biden's threat to cut off US money unless a certain Ukraine prosecutor was fired is any different.
They all look like political blackmailers and scum to me.

''It got almost no attention, but in May, CNN reported that Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) wrote a letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, expressing concern at the closing of four investigations they said were critical to the Mueller probe. In the letter, they implied that their support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine was at stake. Describing themselves as “strong advocates for a robust and close relationship with Ukraine,” the Democratic senators declared, “We have supported [the] capacity-building process and are disappointed that some in Kyiv appear to have cast aside these [democratic] principles to avoid the ire of President Trump,” before demanding Lutsenko “reverse course and halt any efforts to impede cooperation with this important investigation.”

And....

''The Post reports that it is “unclear how seriously Shokin — who was under fire by U.S. and European officials for not taking a more aggressive posture toward corruption overall — was scrutinizing Burisma when he was forced out.” But what is clear is that Biden bragged about getting him fired, declaring last year: “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b----. He got fired.”

[Seamus Padraig]

This is kind of like an arsonist threatening not to burn your house down until you first rearrange the furniture to suit his taste. Say what!?

[Seamus Padraig]

This also reminds me of a famous scene from Blazing Saddles:

https://hooktube.com/watch?v=Z_JOGmXpe5I

[Patrick Armstrong]

I'm starting to like the theory that all of this is a desperate attempt to silence all mention of Ukraine because the involvement in bribes, kickbacks is so huge. To say nothing of all the Ukrainian connections to the conspiracy.

[Patrick Armstrong]

"So far, the House has voted to impeach (future tense) Trump. He isn’t impeached (past tense) until the articles go to the Senate and the House members deliver the message. -Noah Feldman"

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-senate-impeachment-impasse-would-mean-trump-wasnt-impeached-all-harvard-law-prof

[Fred]

Nancy can't even pull off an impeachment right and now hopes to control the media buzz for a couple more weeks while ouse lawyer's try and pry more information from friendly judges to craft same additional friendly media coverage into 2020. Meanwhile the woke white candidates had yet another debate last night, where the rich Asian guy had the audacity to speak the truth about how Hilary lost the Midwest in 2016 and how the left won't win it this year either.

[Jack]

Spot on.

[Factotum]

Founders did contemplate rogue leaders in separate parts of our government; which is exactly why they built in checks and balances.

Disputes between two separate but equal branches of government go to the Judiciary. Quite an elegant approach to the Founders known and accepted perfidy of mankind.

US Constitution grants exclusive power to impeach to the House. And the exclusive duty to try the House impeachment articles to the Senate - reminding also grounds for impeachment are "treason, bribery, high crimes or misdemeanors.

Color within the lines, House Democrats.

[Factotum]

Madame Marbles in Her Mouth (great name) apparently suffers from leaking botox into her facial muscles causing her cheeks to collapse into her teeth when she tries to talk. This explains the weird tongue movements before she speaks.

She seems to be pushing those collapsed cheek muscles out of the way. Notice how she drinks sips of water too - to help them slide around or because the Botox also hampered her normal salivary flow. Apparently full face botox is quite tricky and can lead to speech impediments.