I’ve always thought that McConnell cares most about Republicans retaining the Senate. An impeachment trial in the Senate complicates that:
Mr. McConnell sees the proceedings as necessary to protect a half a dozen moderates in states like Maine, Colorado and North Carolina who face re-election next year and must show voters they are giving the House impeachment charges a serious review.
But none of this will come to fruition unless we get the House to vote for impeachment. Let’s raise some more money for the seventeen most vulnerable Democratic House incumbents (you can divide the money among them however you like):
cain
I think it’s Trump that complicates it. Nobody knows what that asshole is going to do. Our president is a moron and a raving lunatic.
JPL
The AJC mentioned that republican pacs are not spending heavily against Lucy McBath which concerns me. Maybe they think it was a fluke that she won, or on the positive side think she is safe.
Shalimar
So sick of McConnell’s bullshit. The same applies to John Roberts. You know what you call it when you care about the appearance of being fair without actually caring at all about being fair? The worst form of lying.
At least in Maine they have seen this fake concern so often from Collins that no one believes her anymore. Everyone should have this opinion of Republicans. They always lie and then do what they want anyway.
rikyrah
Learned something new this weekend.
All it takes is FIVE Senators to make a secret ballot.
Only 5
West of the Rockies
@rikyrah:
What’s a secret ballot? What would that do? I’ve not heard anything about this.
Uncle Cosmo
@rikyrah: So what does this mean? Can five Senators request that the individual votes of Senators be recorded in secret & only the tally reported? How could any Senator in his/her right mind be certain that the individual votes wouldn’t be leaked within days at most? Couldn’t Twitler file suit to demand disclosure of the individual votes?
Let’s have a link so we can see what this is all about, hm?
Redshift
In Senate voice votes, individual votes would not be recorded, only the totals. I presume McConnell could do that for impeachment conviction. I don’t think it would go well for them.
rikyrah
Remember the reporting that, if a secret ballot was taken on Impeachment that 30 GOP Senators would vote for it.
I thought that it was just made up nonsense. But, a secret ballot is actually a possibility in the Senate. It would take 5 GOPers for it to happen. They were talking about it on Saturday’s AM Joy.
cleek
NYT, can’t read.
But… is that headline suggesting Sen. Thom TIllis (up in 2020) is a moderate?
The guy’s entire existence is about telling NCers that he loves Trump. Really, that’s all he does.
West of the Rockies
I just hope that the inquiry burns more time as it edges closer to the election, that more and more damning material comes to light and further erodes Clump’s support (though let’s be honest, about 1 in 4 Americans are irretrievably stupid and bigoted and will support him no matter what).
The more GOPers who go down in flames, the better.
Heywood J.
The “Moscow Mitch” billboards are getting to him. Good.
James E Powell
@cleek:
Our history shows that if they can’t find one they will create one. See also, Any Republican referred to as a maverick.
WereBear
I’ve been a little more hopeful as time goes on. The letter from the lawyer in Comic Sans did help.
hitchhiker
We’re in a virtuous cycle now.
Someone testifies, and all the news is about how trump is corruptly abusing the power of his office.
trump gets mad and does something horrible, stupid, and or corrupt that becomes another reason to get rid of him.
Republicans gasp and make noise about how this is really, really just too far.
trump walks it back if he can.
damage done.
then we get more testimony about his corrupt abuse of power, and so on.
He can only escape now if there’s something awful that happens from outside and he handles it well. But he’s not going to handle anything well, because his white house is now filled with idiots and ideologues … so if, dog forbid, something awful happens, we’ll just see him flailing ineffectually.
Pelosi led a group to Jordan today because she knows that someone has to present the rational face of the US government — and she’s it. Her brother died, her old friend Rep. Cummings died, and she’s working. This wasn’t a stunt, tho’ trump will probably take a break from tweeting about HRC to complain.
At this point, Pelosi is doing the president’s job without the title. Typical shit for a woman of her generation.
mrmoshpotato
@hitchhiker:
You mean instead of causing something awful to happen or making something worse?
Is Hillary in the Oval Office and living in the White House with First Husband Bill in your timeline?
Uncle Cosmo
@rikyrah: Please see the Constitution, Article I, Section 5, Part 3 (in entirety):
IOW even if 5 Senators acting in concert can cause a secret vote – which I do not for one nanosecond believe – 1/5 of those present can require the vote to be recorded in the Congressional Record (which is what would appear to constitute “the Journal”), at which point it ain’t secret no more & everyone’s tender tushie is hung out to dry.
Let us for the sake of argument suppose that MoskvaMitch can keep his Thugs from doing this. Grit your teeth & imagine for a second you’re a GOP Senator willing to vote to convict & remove but only if it’s kept secret. Would you trust that there wouldn’t be 20 Democratic Senators (or whatever 1/5 of those voting is) who’d use this provision to hang you out to dry?
Frum is, as usual, so FOS you could squeeze his head & fertilize your roses with whatever runs out of either earhole.
Jesse
The Act Blue page says “Ballon Juice House 2020”. Look closely.