Senate slaps down Trump border emergency; Republicans defect

The media kinda failed to see this coming, and so did I (because they did)

Up until the last minute, I kept reading that five Republicans would defect. I didn’t see a single “wise” pundit who predicted the number would be anywhere near the twelve who crossed over.

Now I’m starting to question one of my deeply-held beliefs, which is that there is no chance to get 67 senators to vote for conviction in an impeachment trial. The surprising tally of 59 in this vote is starting to get tantalizingly close. Maybe, and I stress that is still only a remote chance because our lawmakers rarely vote on conscience over political expedience, but maybe it is possible to get 67 votes to convict if there is a solid mass of evidence for some obstruction of justice charges. Although we cynics of the world are right almost all of the time, there’s still that pesky “almost” in the sentence. The Congress does occasionally fool me by doing the right thing.

Of course, the cynic in me thinks “Nah, they’re not doing the right thing. They’re just worried that some future Democratic president will use his emergency powers for something they don’t like that really is an emergency!”

6 thoughts on “Senate slaps down Trump border emergency; Republicans defect

  1. OK! An empty gesture, that’s progress! Seriously.
    Unless they can flip eight more senators for the override, this means nothing. Still, it’s some sign to Rump that he doesn’t have a blank check. In this sense at least, we have a semi-functioning legislature. Could the Party of Eisenhower be (slowly) re-growing the balls they handed over when they nommed Donald? Sadly, no. I mean, only time will tell.

    1. This empty gesture is just a first step. The success or failure of Congress in over-riding Trump’s veto will show who the Republicans really are. As I point out above, they have been showing that for years, but it cannot be done too often if they are to be turned out of office. Repetition is, or used to be, a basic tool of education.

  2. I used to have a blog called Mike’s Minority Opinions. I chose that title despite being a straight white male because I was (and still am) a conservative, libertarian, registered Republican, Mets fan living in the Bronx. But these days I am even more of a minority because I am a Republican that despises Trump. I find it quite depressing there aren’t more Republicans like myself. I find the way Republican politicians kiss up to Trump deeply embarrassing. It’s understandable that so many do that because Trump is popular with the base, but I think the GOP is going take a real beating in 2020. But it was refreshing to see so many Republican senators vote for this bill. I don’t know about “wise pundits” but Fox News reported that while 5 Republicans had announced their support for the bill, at least 10 would end up voting for it. That’s reasonably close to 12. Just for the record, I heard that on Special report with Bret Baier which in my opinion is the most fair and balanced show on that network. That’s pretty much the only show I watch on Fox since they cancelled Red Eye.

    I think if evidence that Trump committed a serious crime is discovered, that sufficient Republicans will vote to remove him. But the evidence needs to be fairly dispositive and it must be for something that is indisputably a crime. For instance some people argue that Trump asking James Comey to go easy on Michael Flynn constituted obstruction of justice while others argue that it was within the powers of his office. I doubt they would remove him for something arguably not a crime.

    1. Personally, I think the Republican Party is doomed, because after Trump falls, he will be like Joseph McCarthy – it will be impossible for anyone who fully embraced him to pose as a person of integrity, or even decency.

      Also, to any thinking person, the actions and inactions of the Republican Party in Trump’s first two years, when the Party held the Presidency, the House, and the Senate, demonstrate how fully the party exists only to serve the interests of the concentrated wealth, and how much the conservative agenda they purport to desire is mere lip service to keep single-issue voters turning out – turning out forever, since the Republicans will never actually take any action on those issues.

  3. Uncle Scoopy, I hope you are right. Or wrong. Or whichever one results in Trump being removed from office. He is a corrupt travesty of everything America is supposed to stand for. He will spend the rest of his life being justly convicted of things.

    I know Nancy Pelosi is a very shrewd political mind, and maybe she is right – maybe Trump is not worth the turmoil and hatred impeaching him would cause. Yet the rich, and powerful, and right-wing are ALWAYS being let off the hook for reasons similar to that. Nixon was let off the hook for reasons like that, and I agreed at the time. But to avoid that short term pain, we avoid doing the right thing, and fail to pass the correct verdict on these people. I don’t think it’s right any more. Trump and the Republicans have crossed far too many lines.

  4. They’re getting sick of trump ignoring them. Every defector said the same thing “we can’t let him do this because then the other side will do it to us”. Obviously.

    Will it parlay to an impeachment? Right now, Pelosi is walking that back. I’m worried the dems may think they have a better chance in 20 if trump continues to fuck up for another year. This is terrible, of course, and amazingly self serving.

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