Congressional reporters say the impeachment terrain is shifting

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Looks like Trump is done.  Impeachment is nigh.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/23/media/impeachment-congress-donald-trump-reliable-sources/index.html

[TBoneTX 44,613]

"The walls are closing in!"

[luckytxn 2,264]

Impeach all you want but you ain't removing him from office so it is a waste of time just like when it was done to Bill Clinton. Trump is POTUS till 2024 and Hillary still lost.

[Dashinka 24,075]

Impeach Trump!  Who needs an Orange Mango Mussolini?

[Randyandyuni 2,682]

I am rueing the day 

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,361]

[laylalex 7,282]

Well, I was having a fight strong discussion the other weekend with my dad about impeachment. He is nominally still a Democrat but for reasons I will not get into (because I am trying not to offend Nature Boy with discussion about my ex) he has been drifting rightwards over the past two years. Anyway, I was asking him what the point would be about impeachment if the Senate would never convict him. He said it's because if Trump is impeached any future president can't pardon him for anything he was impeached over. I thought that sounded like a pretty good argument for impeachment! He said it was a waste of time and money and would damage the Democrats because it was likely to be based on things that were made up or weren't really impeachable at all, just things Trump did that made Democrats mad. So they could go ahead and impeach him anyway, or try to, but what would they end up with? A great big pile of nothing. I said that wasn't it more important to you know, follow the rule of law or something than to just think about it politically, and he told me I was not living in the real world. 😕 

[cyclone27 710]

Impeachment is merely: Bringing formal charges which forces the Senate to have a trial.  The end result would mean the Senate would not convict. 
 

Thus making the impeachment charges moot and irrelevant even more so than they are now. 

[laylalex 7,282]

9 minutes ago, cyclone27 said:

Impeachment is merely: Bringing formal charges which forces the Senate to have a trial.  The end result would mean the Senate would not convict. 
 

Thus making the impeachment charges moot and irrelevant even more so than they are now. 

But do you see the point I am making? They are not necessarily moot and irrelevant if in the future Trump could not be pardoned for any of the things he's impeached over.

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,361]

I think its going to back fire. I think even moderates and near center liberals are tired of congress doing nothing but investigating Trump

[cyclone27 710]

What you don’t understand is he can be impeached and still pardoned. Impeachment means little - think of it as a grand jury and nothing more.

[Dashinka 24,075]

46 minutes ago, laylalex said:

Well, I was having a fight strong discussion the other weekend with my dad about impeachment. He is nominally still a Democrat but for reasons I will not get into (because I am trying not to offend Nature Boy with discussion about my ex) he has been drifting rightwards over the past two years. Anyway, I was asking him what the point would be about impeachment if the Senate would never convict him. He said it's because if Trump is impeached any future president can't pardon him for anything he was impeached over. I thought that sounded like a pretty good argument for impeachment! He said it was a waste of time and money and would damage the Democrats because it was likely to be based on things that were made up or weren't really impeachable at all, just things Trump did that made Democrats mad. So they could go ahead and impeach him anyway, or try to, but what would they end up with? A great big pile of nothing. I said that wasn't it more important to you know, follow the rule of law or something than to just think about it politically, and he told me I was not living in the real world. 😕 

You do realize that impeachment has nothing to do with the rule of law, but is in fact a political tool.  It would be interesting to see the Dems actually take this forward especially with Trump having approval ratings higher than Obama at the same time.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

23 minutes ago, Nature Boy 2.0 said:

I think its going to back fire. I think even moderates and near center liberals are tired of congress doing nothing but investigating Trump

 

    IDK. The way the current congress works is kind of like when you tell a 4 year old to keep an eye on a 2 year old. You are not expecting them to accomplish anything. You are mainly hoping to avoid a catastrophe. The reality is, sometimes having something trivial to distract them for a short time actually works out for the best.

[Randyandyuni 2,682]

6 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

    IDK. The way the current congress works is kind of like when you tell a 4 year old to keep an eye on a 2 year old. You are not expecting them to accomplish anything. You are mainly hoping to avoid a catastrophe. The reality is, sometimes having something trivial to distract them for a short time actually works out for the best.

now that is a workable analogy !

[laylalex 7,282]

14 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

You do realize that impeachment has nothing to do with the rule of law, but is in fact a political tool.  It would be interesting to see the Dems actually take this forward especially with Trump having approval ratings higher than Obama at the same time.

Yes I do know it has nothing to do with the rule of law but it does not change the question that I keep asking but no one seems to be addressing. Why not think about the LONG TERM political consequences of not impeaching Trump? If there is evidence (and I am not saying there is, we just don't know yet because the investigation isn't complete) that is enough to support impeachment, and he is not impeached for his actions that would support impeachment, then (1) what is stopping a future president from pardoning him for those actions and (2) what kind of message does not impeaching send IF there is sufficient evidence -- that only things that are politically expedient are worthwhile pursuing? That's really craven. 😕