Update: Many thanks to driftglass for sharing this article to Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up! Please take a moment to read the blog, I have more articles to share (alas, I am out of punch and pie).
I've written before how the Republican Party has no issues to run on, just outrage... and much of that outrage manufactured by themselves in order to frame the debate on their terms and move the goalposts whenever they want.
For 2024 - desperate to make Joe Biden presidency look bad to both the Beltway media and the general voters - the Republicans are doing everything they can to raise the partisan specter of impeachment, even when they have nothing to go on. Not only at Biden himself, but at people in his administration, such as the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas (via David A. Graham at the Atlantic):
The entire thing is a fantasy. The impeachment is based on differences in border policy, rather than any misconduct. Even as they move it forward, House Republicans are avoiding legislation on the matter, working to snuff out a bill that would actually affect the border. And if Mayorkas is impeached, he is all but certain to avoid conviction in the Senate.
No precedent exists for such an impeachment. In fact, only one Cabinet speaker has been impeached in American history. In 1876, War Secretary William Belknap was accused of accepting kickbacks in return for lucrative federal posts. Facing impeachment, he resigned. The House impeached him anyway, but the Senate didn’t convict, in part because some members felt the resignation removed Belknap from their jurisdiction...
The articles allege that Mayorkas “repeatedly violated laws enacted by Congress regarding immigration and border security. In large part because of his unlawful conduct, millions of aliens have illegally entered the United States on an annual basis with many unlawfully remaining in the United States.” But experts on both constitutional law and immigration have roundly criticized the move as overreach, noting that Mayorkas is under attack for using powers that administrations of both parties have employed legally for decades...
The charges themselves are a mess. David Bier, an immigration expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, has picked apart the articles of impeachment and found, for example, that Mayorkas is charged with failing to follow circuit-court decisions that were reversed by the Supreme Court. Another passage appears to charge Mayorkas with using a power granted to him by Congress.
If Congress doesn’t like the laws, it could change them. But in recent years, under both Democrats and Republicans, Congress has left more and more power to the executive branch. This is especially true in the area of immigration, where bipartisan attempts at overhauls keep falling short. Because neither party can get exactly what it wants, they’ve chosen to do nothing. That has left the system riddled with holes, often sloppily patched by successive administrations...
If the House Republicans are serious about fixing immigration - even if it's to pander to the racist demagoguery by making it harder for asylum seekers and gainfully employable to even apply for the paperwork - they'd be passing legislation. Instead, they're holding sham trials against their hated targets. Mayorkas is not the guilty party here: the House Republicans are.
If only there were a way for the Senate Democrats to flip any impeachment matter the House brings to them by charging the House Republicans over false allegations, manufactured evidence, and acts of perjury. Maybe then the Republicans will settle the fuck down and actually pass legislation to resolve the matter however possible.
Except they won't. donald trump openly doesn't want any immigration laws passed this year because it's the only means of stoking MAGA outrage he's got left.
(trump and his acolytes begin attacking Taylor Swift for being a fan of her boyfriend's football team)
Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me...
1 comment:
Now that the goddamn Republicans are having their asses handed to them on abortion, "the border" is all they have and under no circumstances will they kill that cash cow by fixing the problem.
They've been doing this and lying about it for decades, meanwhile Biden is doing what he can to alleviate the actual problem, like getting Mexico to ramp up enforcement of its own immigration laws.
The impeachment craze is what we get for having a goddamn Republican majority in the house.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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