UPDATED: The House GOP Just Voted For Impeachment
It's a bipartisan thing now--a thundering bipartisan majority of the House voted to impeach President Trump, with only 60 nay votes.
Don't believe that's what yesterday's Syria vote was? Just ask Nancy Pelosi. She was out this morning in front of the surrogate media telling them that "All roads lead to Putin with this president, and Trump's Syria policy was intended to help Putin ." That's right. The Syria vote wasn't just the rejection of a policy. It was a rejection of a president who is aiding and abetting our enemy Russia. Count on hearing that constantly from the Dems from now on.
If the GOPers try to back out of this, saying that the vote wasn't really about impeachment, Pelosi will just say--
They're too stupid to understand these things just now, but the reality is that they do recognize that Trump is a mortal threat to our national security. Russia is our enemy. We know that because Putin hacked the DNC, Putin meddled in our election. And Trump is helping our enemy Russia by betraying our "allies" in Syria and Ukraine. He has to be removed, and this Syria vote was the first step on that road back from denial for The Stupid Party (h/t Daniel Patrick Moynihan). They'll be with me when it comes time. And then we'll move on to impeaching Brett Kavanaugh.
At the very least the GOPe losers voted thunderously to remove any pressure on Pelosi to hold an impeachment inquiry vote. There is no pressure now that the GOPe has validated her talking points. But the reality is probably much worse.
This may well have been a vote by the GOPe to return to permanent minority status. Can they really expect that Trump voters whom they've so blatantly betrayed will turn out for them? Last night Lou Dobbs interviewed Steve Scalise. It was pathetic, and Dobbs just sat in disbelief, shaking his head. Scalise kept trying to deflect from the Syria vote to things they supported Trump on. And Dobbs kept returning to reality: This is a president the Dems are seeking to impeach; he needs your support; 57% of your voters support the policy--and you just betrayed him. Scalise had no answer to that. No answer at all .
How to explain it all? In politics "Follow the money" is usually a sound principle. We're talking about Representatives, most of whom probably could not explain where Kurdistan is located--maybe not even Syria. Yet they voted to impeach Trump. Only money can explain that degree of idiocy. It's all about the Benjamins. Follow the trail of Benjamins.
It's pretty much up to Trump and Barr at this point.
ADDENDUM: We the People still have a part to play. Sorry I forgot to say that. I guess I'm still in a state of disbelief.
UPDATE 1: McConnell signals to Trump not to count on his support unless Trump caves to him--or to whoever has the Benjamins. From DM via FR:
Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he wants 'something even stronger' in the Senate than the House's resolution formally opposing Donald Trump 's troop withdrawal from northern Syria last week.
The Senate Majority Leader said he was 'encouraged' by the House, including 129 Republican members, voting to condemn the president's highly contested decision.
'I believe it's important that we make a strong forward-looking strategic statement. For that reason my preference would be for something even stronger than the resolution that the House passed yesterday which has some serious weaknesses,' McConnell said from the Senate floor Thursday.
The vote Wednesday – where more than a hundred Republicans broke ranks with the president – showed the overwhelming bipartisan opposition to Trump 's decision to remove troops from a region as Turkey took military action against Kurdish forces in Syria.
UPDATE 2: I forgot this earlier. This vote also takes some of the pressure off "moderate" Dems by making opposition to Trump bipartisan.