No Lawyers or Guns But Plenty of Money

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari)

"The Democrats' impeachment inquiry is not the organic outgrowth of serious misconduct; it is an orchestrated campaign to upend our political system." - Republican report written by Republicans for Republicans in some alternate universe.
"(C)unning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”- George Washington's Farewell Address, as quoted by the Intelligence Committee's report.

So Gator Zero in the swamp that used to be known as the Potomac River did the predictable thing and decided he wasn't sending over his consiglieres to the Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings that start tomorrow. But that's not to say Don Trumpolini won't have his share of defenders. As Charlie Pierce warned us yesterday, the Republican rodeo clowns are getting their greasepaint, rags and big shoes ready for Wednesday.

     To be fair, yesterday the Republicans on the Committee telegraphed their intentions with a 110 page alternate reality report that would do Harry Turtledove proud. The government's printing press, as usual in this Glorious Age of He Who Will Not Read did what was expected of them and turned the report into a 20 page pop-up book, with the abstracts boiled down to 50 monosyllabic words to keep him amused as he jetted off on Air Force One for another Big Boy trip to London (hopefully, he left the short jacket and long vest in his golf club locker at Mar-a-Lago).

     If this was a symphony or opera, this is the part where you'd hear the orchestra tuning up. Only, instead of hearing finely-tuned wind, reed and brass instruments in a dignified cacophony, you'd hear a decidedly less cultured chaos not brought about by sensitive, trained hands but a group of simians with musical pretensions playing mouth harps, slide whistles and the calliope while wearing conductor suits that are 20 sizes too large for them.

     But as of today, we've heard from the actual conductor, Adam Schiff, the grown up in the pit: The House Intelligence Committee laid out its case in its 300 page report delineating the impeachable offenses committed by "President" Trump and those in his inner circle. Among the discoveries, none of which really rising to the level of news, is that Pence was complicit to some degree.

     Note that highlighted paragraph by Michael Isikoff implicates not just Pence but also Pompeo, Mulvaney, Rick Perry and others. That's two Cabinet Secretaries, an acting White House Chief of Staff and a Vice President. No wonder Trump won't let any of them testify.
      Fellow journalist Aaron Blake turned up on his own Twitter feed page 226 of the report that states that Mark Esper and the Pentagon are also complicit in the coverup after having failed to provide two emails in which "which Laura Cooper... described Ukraine (as) asking about military assistance as of July 25."

 

     So all that remains is to send in the clowns. Oh wait...

They're Already Here

So what can we expect from the Republicans, who, with Gym Jordan, Doug Collins and Matt Gaetz, look like an all star lineup of gone-to-seed rodeo clowns? Well, in addition to the Capitol Police, the Longworth Building will be staffed by a full army of janitors for when the GOP starts flinging its shit against the walls and anxiously noting the drippage to see what actually sticks. Among the ambulatory offal:

    The new right wing tactic is to try to make Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff testify because, you know, when defending the indefensible, investigate the investigators and call into question the legitimacy of the entire impeachment process. In other words, when decrying a "kangaroo court" presided over by Captain Kangaroo, according to Matt Gaetz (R-"Occifer, lemme inform you my dadsh really rich"), turn legitimate proceedings as outlined by Article Two of the US Constitution into the very thing you're accusing them of being.

      And trying to invoke subpoena power it doesn't have by making the Intel Committee Chair testify to defend his actions is kind of ballsy of Republicans considering ranking Republican Devin Nunes' own phone calls with Giuliani and one of his indicted thugs actually showed up in the Intelligence Committee report.

     And while Trump is in London inveighing against "nasty" France after getting faced by Macron on live TV, the French AFP clapped back in an article on the Intel Committee report that admits the Democrats have a pretty strong impeachment case against Trump. As expected, the administration's Tokyo Rose, renamed Stephanie Grisham, immediately shot back without obviously having had time to read the novel-length report, and said it, "reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing."

      I guess Grisham hasn't read Trump's Twitter feed for the last seven years.

    So what the Republican Party is, besides the Party of Flint Rasmussen, is the Party of Fact Witnesses. While they're busy playing the Bill Barr home version game of "Investigate the Investigators", Republicans like Nunes and Sen. Ron Johnson could plausibly step down from the dais and take their turn at the testimony table and explain their complicity in all this.

      In perhaps the only sensible and decent thing he ever did in his political career, former AG Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigation pertaining to Russia's hack of our 2016 election, a move that infuriated Trump, who obviously thought Sessions should act as Bill Barr is now- As his personal attorney. It remains to be seen whether or not Johnson will recuse himself in the inevitable event the House writes the articles of impeachment and kicks it up to the Senate. But considering that House Intel Committee Ranking Member Nunes pointedly did not and led the rodeo clown circus in the lower chamber, I wouldn't hold my breath that Johnson, Trump's co-head cheerleader in the Senate, will do the right thing.

       Meaning that these Republicans, who by right should be fact witnesses in an impeachment probe, have fewer ethics than a little racist from Alabama who lied to the Senate about colluding with Sergei Kislyak at the Mayflower Hotel during his own confirmation hearings. Let that sink in for a minute, folks.