Impeachment Stuff

 

I listened to about 30 minutes of impeachment testimony on the radio Friday. This one is feels very partisan. There isn’t a crime, at least not one that anyone can name and these witnesses all seem to have the same angle on the Ukraine situation, that Trump used ‘irregular channels’ with Zelensky. Big deal. Presidents’ can use any channel they want. They establish the direction of foreign policy and can change it on a whim. Whether going around the ambassador is a good idea or not is best left to the voters.  

The case for impeachment hangs on whether or not Trump withheld aid to Ukraine until they coughed up dirt on Biden. But we already know Ukraine got the money without any giving up any Biden info. There was a delay in releasing the money, but is that really worth this? So the committee hearings are just State Department officials complaining that Trump left them out of the diplomatic process. Trump went around them because he doesn’t trust them.

 He survived an attempt to prove that he colluded with the Russians in 2016 to steal the election. Robert Mueller’s report (which took a ridiculous 2.5 years) showed no evidence of collusion and left the question of ‘obstruction’ hanging in the air.

Forget that obstruction was beyond the mandate of the Mueller report, the FBI team handling the probe committed serious errors. A reckoning is coming very soon on the corruption (Comey, Mccabe) that launched the Mueller report.

A lot of Trump’s reluctance (in my opinion) to use regular channels is he doesn’t trust these agencies.

 His administration is clumsy with sensitive matters. He uses poor judgement and has no discipline; he lashes out through Twitter and changes his mind and attacks the nearest bureaucrat. He is a mess, but this back and forth with the Ukrainian president is within the range of acceptable diplomacy. 

There is a lot more in the phone call about the DNC's missing server and Crowdstrike than Joe and Hunter Biden. Trump thinks Ukraine might have some information on this. Who knows?

 During the call he asks Zelensky to look into Hunter Biden and whether anything illegal happened when Joe Biden got the investigator fired. It could be damaging to Joe in the upcoming 2020 race, which is probably why we know about it.

Impeachments aren’t just about criminal behavior; Congress is within its right to impeach on even trivial matters but if they push too hard they’ll hurt themselves.

The trick is to convince the American people that Trump’s phone call was so egregious it demands impeachment. I don’t think it’s going to work. Will these hearings convince Democrat reps in red states to vote in favor? It matters less what he is accused of doing and more about whether they can make a case. Even if Trump is impeached it’s unlikely that the Senate votes to remove him. The Republicans run the Senate and they aren’t likely to toss him out.

He’ll be the only impeached president to run for office if he actually loses the vote! This might be the beginning of impeachment as a regular political tool but I hope not. This Ukraine thing is petty. It’s obvious from these civil servants testimonies that they are offended at having their ‘authority’ usurped by the president. 

We all get territorial about our position, even small things. I worked with a person whose job was to order office supplies and day to day items for the business. I hated going to him with a suggestion about anything. “Can you double up the post-its next time? We are out of forms, can you get a few more?” Every suggestion or request was met with a heavy sigh and a reminder of how busy he was. Problems were dismissed out of hand as ‘not important’ or ‘not my problem’. He didn’t like sharing responsibility either, lest we figure out how easy it is and get rid of him. Most offices have these types, they protect their work and guard information.

This looks like what’s going on with Ambassador Yovanovitch who Trump trashed in his phone call to Zelensky. Whatever his beef, he could fire her for wearing too much makeup if he wanted. Presidents can do that. I think if he had cleaned house right after coming in some of these bureaucrats wouldn’t be such a problem. There are too many ‘threatened’ departments protecting their turf and handling information in their way. Attempts to go around them are seen as offensive.  

The 9/11 Commission Report  (remember that?) concluded that intelligence agencies didn’t share enough information. That lack of sharing, or “siloing”, created an environment where credible intelligence leading to an attack on the World Trade Center was overlooked. We still see a lot of turf protecting today.

Hulu had a show last year called the “Looming Tower”. It showed how the CIA held on to critical intelligence that should’ve been shared with the FBI.  I have no idea how accurate the show was but the performance of Peter Sarsgaard (Martin Schmidt) is brilliant. An unappreciated genius who thinks his knowledge is superior, he hides information from others so they can’t get credit. Worst of all he thinks he is outside the chain of command, a decision maker unto himself. The point isn’t how right or wrong Martin is but how his arrogance transcends cooperation. He is allergic to oversight, contemptuous of other views and calculating to a fault.

So it’s a turf war with a twist. Adam Schiff plays out his hatred of Trump through the familiar idea of turf war and tries to makes a gamble that he can get the votes without alienating large swathes of the public. If he swings too hard people will show up just to vote against his party and all of Trump’s complaining about “witch hunts” and “fake news” will be true. Voters will see it that way too.