March to Impeachment: Week Two

(The world's worst Dad Band: Donnie Oranges and the Leg Breakers.)

     For someone who'd lived through Watergate and its rapid fire developments over the one year plus it had dominated the headlines, I have to say I'm suitably impressed considering that Nancy Pelosi had announced impeachment proceedings would begin just one week ago today. As a politically disengaged 14-15 year-old growing up in the mid 70s, even I had become familiarized with the names that are now inextricably tied with Watergate: Sen. Sam Ervin, Judge John J. Sirica, Archibald Cox and John Dean.

     Now, today's whistleblowers, watchdogs and potential witnesses are set to have their names enshrined in American criminal history: House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, Intelligence Inspector General Steve Linick and Kurt Volker.

     Ages and ages hence, we will say with a rueful sigh that in the Year of Our Lord 2016, 62,000,000 hillbillies and self-interested psychopaths "elected" a cryptofascist named Donald Trump to get back at liberals for giving America a black president for eight years because he kept bellowing he was going to Make America Great Again, that he would bring back the jobs, that he was going to build the wall, that he was going to put money in their pockets, that he'd rebuild the infrastructure and that he would put America first.

     Well, none of those things happened, obviously, yet his organ donor supporters still insist he's the greatest thing since sliced bread because, well, he triggers the liberals and that's what's really important, don't you know? Triggering the libs is much more important than an infrastructure that won't crumble, building that wall guarded by dogs that shoot bees out of their mouths, a tax break that actually gives more than just the 1% a break. As long as he triggers the libs, I'm happy, y'all.

     Except there's a price to pay for that collective act of treachery that was egged on by Putin's trolls who played you like a mouth harp and kazoo. There's the little matter of Ukrainegate: Violating the Constitution by trading something of great value to Ukraine for something of personal value to Donald Trump. And the revelations are spilling out from people who are waiting for the fat man to fall for good this time, making the Republican Party as a whole scream, "Whoo whoo whoo whoo, Moe, Larry, cheese!"

     There was Volker's testimony behind closed doors before eight Congressional committees yesterday that was accompanied by a document dump that included some damning text messages, such as one from former Ukraine ambassador and chargé d’affaires Bill Taylor (who'd served in the diplomatic corps for 22 years) to EU ambassador Gordon Sondland (a hotelier who essentially bought his way into the EU by contributing $1 million to Trump's bloated inaugural fund). 

     Taylor had texted Sondland several times this past year and here's a sample of them:

     “Are we now saying that security assistance and [White House] meeting are conditioned on investigations?”

     “The nightmare is [the Ukrainians] give the interview and don’t get the security assistance. The Russians love it. (And I quit.)”

     “The message to the Ukrainians (and Russians) we send with the decision on security assistance is key. With the hold [on the assistance], we have already shaken their faith in us. Thus my nightmare scenario.”

      Then, there's the smoking gun:

      "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

      Uninfluenced, as usual, by reality, Republicans emerged from Volker's deposition visibly shaken but eerily upbeat that, like the Mueller report, Kurt Volker, who'd been forced out by Pompous Maximus last Friday right after Nancy Pelosi announced the launch of impeachment inquiries, had exonerated "President" Trump. Gym Jordan announced it was all a big nothing berder (Until being told that, during Volker's deposition,  Trump had asked on the South Lawn for China's help in digging up dirt on Joe Biden, after which Jordan immediately terminated his impromptu presser, perhaps in search of the miscreant who keeps stealing his suit jackets).

     Sondland immediately shot back a text to Taylor and said Trump was adamant about there being no quid pro quo. (Sen. Ron Johnson disputed that today, claiming that Sondland told him there was quid pro quo.).

     There was yesterday's revelations that Trump had personally ordered the removal of Marie Yovanovitch, the last ambassador to Ukraine, because she reportedly had an "anti-Trump bias" and was impeding the Biden investigation. (Yovanovitch will also testify before House legislators a week from today and one reasonably has every expectation that Yovanovitch will provide a few bombshells of her own.)

     In this flurry of testimonies, to-be testimonies, depositions and document dumps, the "Do Nothing Democrats" are working like a one nut on his honeymoon to subpoena anyone and everyone in the galaxy who can potentially shed some light on Ukrainegate, including the White House itself and Rudy Giuliani. Mike Pence's own Ukraine documents (including, hopefully, his briefing packet for his Warsaw trip) have been requested by the House.

     And, as with Watergate, they're all refusing to comply.

     Watergate saw over 40 Nixon aides get convicted, with several going to jail.

     With a bit of luck, we can beat that.

     Because that would trigger the right wing nut jobs, wouldn't it?