And there was much rejoicing.
But now it's straight to work, above all stopping trump's Shutdown before the damage gets worse.
There's a couple of other things the Dems in the House can do as well:
- Use whatever power they have to ensure Mueller continues his grand jury special counsel investigations to their completion. (Also make sure they don't step all over that, because that did happen during Iran-Contra inquiries, making it hard to secure convictions)
- Pass legislation re-establishing a lot of the services and regulations trump has gutted while a terrified GOP-led Congress refused to fight back.
- Investigate the ever-loving hell out of a corrupt trump administration.
It's that last part where the House Democrats can do the most good (the rest will likely get blocked by McConnell's obstructionism in the Senate). Serious and open investigations into trump's potentially felonious misdeeds while sitting in the Oval Office can be - if done right - an effective way of isolating trump and breaking his hold on power.
There is an argument that all these investigations could lead to impeachment... but lacking the Senate there is no guarantee of removal, so impeachment really isn't an option here. No, what can happen here is the House setting up a foundation for indictments, which may be a legal gray area but one that definitely deserves consideration.
The House Democrats can reasonably indict - much like the Mueller probe has already - a lot of trump's handlers and underlings and co-conspirators, isolating him from the ones he trusts and breaking his ability to cheat his way through whatever is left of his time as
So best of luck to the Democratic Party this year.
For the Love of God, Dems. Save us.
1 comment:
Steve Benen had this to say about the hearings the Dems have scheduled to investigate the details of implementing a "Medicare for all" style single-payer healthcare law:
"Hmm. So if I understand this correctly, members of Congress are planning to hold something called “hearings,” which will be open to the public, in which they’ll closely examine a complex policy proposal in detail. As part of the process, lawmakers will invite subject-matter experts to offer testimony and answer questions, all in the hopes of better understanding the practical implications of an idea."
In other words, the house of representatives is doing its damn job for the first time since 2011.
And no, they can't pass anything into law until we get control of the senate and white house, but they can do the hard work of crafting difficult legislation that will actually function and withstand judicial scrutiny, all of which needs to be in place before we get our eighteen months of a Democratic administration and a favorable congress, as we'll be saddled with cleaning up this gawdawful mess right about then and have other priorities that we can't ignore this time around (*cough* election reform *cough*).
So I'm just as excited about the boring foundational work they're back to doing as I am about the higher media profile stuff like indictments and investigations because that's why I wanted them in control in the first place.
-Doug in Oakland
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