I think that we can all agree that the second impeachment trial of one Donald John Trump has been a blowout. The House Impeachment managers have been brilliant. If this was a criminal trial, any defense attorney would be begging for some kind of an off ramp. But this isn’t a trial, it’s an impeachment.
The Trump defense has been a disgrace to the legal profession. Remember when Saturday Night Live used to call their cast the Not Ready For Prime Time Players? When it comes to the Trump defense team, the moniker is more likely to be the Not Ready For Sub Prime Lending Players. But they don’t need to be any good, because this is an impeachment, and the proverbial fix is in, right?
Or is it? Think back to the first Trump impeachment trial in the Senate. Mitch McConnell was the undisputed king of the Senate, and he set the rules in order to ensure that the outcome was nothing more than a foregone conclusion. He restricted work days, refused to allo9w the House managers to call any witnesses, and otherwise made sire that the sham impeachment was nothing more than a rubber stamp GOP majority acquittal.
What a difference a year makes, huh? Chuck Schumer is now the Senate Majority Leader, and McConnell has had his wings clipped. One thing I will say for the two old dogs of the Senate, they carved out some pretty good rules for the procedure of the second impeachment of Trump. But it’s still a rigged process, because you need 67 votes to convict, and good luck finding 17 GOP Senators who vote to convict. Which is why I say to keep both of your eyes on Mitch McConnell.
Because McConnell has, from the very start, struck a different tone this time. McConnell broke with Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol desecration, directly blaming him from the floor of the Senate for inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol that day, which is exactly the charge that Trump is under. And make no mistake, McConnell honestly loves the Senate, the tradition, the rules, the solemnity. It was a personal attack on McConnell when the Capitol was stormed that day.
McConnell said before the trial started that he was prepared to keep an open mind, and wanted to hear all of the evidence and arguments presented before he made up his mind, a stark change from his position for the first impeachment hearing. And then, more recently, he said publicly that he had advised the members of his caucus that he wanted them to consider this trial as a vote of conscience, and that neither he, nor his second in command in the GOP Senate, John Thune, would be whipping votes for a Trump acquittal.
And this is why you have to watch Mitch McConnell tomorrow like a hawk. Pop Quiz! Anybody here ever been married? Yeah, me too. Twice. I’ll be 64 in a couple of weeks, and will have spent 40 of those years dealing on a daily basis with another human being, a female nonetheless. Bummer. And if there’s one thing a male learns early, it’s that you have to pick your spots carefully if you’re going to go to war with the missus.
Mitch McConnell is of course, married to Elaine Chao. Chao is no trophy wife, nor is she a wallflower. Her Chinese family is stinking, filthy rich, but she personally is also a gifted and qualified administrator. She was a cabinet secretary under GOP President George W Bush, and by all appearances, ran her department with good quality. following Trump’s election, as a sop to his Majority Leader, Trump nominated her for his Transportation Secretary, and her nomination passage was a breeze.
But here’s where the wicket gets sticky. In the days following the Capitol insurrection, Chao was one of the first cabinet secretaries to resign her position. As a proud American, she refused to be associated with a President who attempted to subvert the process of her adopted land. She made a moral judgement, less than 2 weeks before she was scheduled to leave office anyway.
And this is why you have to watch Mitch McConnell like a hawk tomorrow. He lives with Chao, what do you think the chances are that Elaine has been venting some of her frustrations about the piggishness of Trump to her husband? And just how seriously does Mitch McConnell want a happy home life going forward from this point?
The new information breaking in the media tonight about Trump’s callous disregard for the safety of his own Vice President, Mike Pence, is going to cause some trouble in the vote. Mike Pence is a sympathetic symbol for the GOP, he spent 4 long years taking more shit than any of them had to take in subservience to His Lowness. And if Trump would sacrifice him, then what about them?
Without Mitch McConnell, the whole thing is dead in the water. But if McConnell comes out tomorrow, ahead of the Senate vote, and announces that as a pure matter of conscience, with or without the urging of his wife, that he must vote to convict Trump, and especially if he can talk his number two man, John Thune to back him? Then all bets are off. Because they can drag the entire moderate conservative with of the party over with them, and provide air cover. Watch Mitch McConnell.
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Well, our Cubbies DID manage to not only make it to (all I ever asked for) the World Series so anything is possible. (For those who don’t understand Murfster’s and my decades of suffering think 1980 and the Miracle on Ice only a hundred times more “I can’t believe that happened!) I even think there’s an extra factor in there for McConnell. He doesn’t need Trump. Never has. Trump was only useful to Yertle to nominate the judges and Justices he wanted to ram though and to sign tax cuts and cut regulations. Oh, and to lift a sanction or two that just happened to benefit Mitch! McConnell was living his dream, running the Senate the way a Speaker of the House can (and often has) ruled with complete control. He was getting EVERYTHING he wanted and wielding power he’d once only dreamed of. He was Majority Leader and just as Trump never met a Presidential norm he didn’t work feverishly to destroy McConnell took the same approach in the Senate. That didn’t sit well with a LOT of the old guard including members of his own Party but McConnell took complete control. He was just as powerful as the Speaker and since the Senate controls confirmations in some ways more so.
Trump cost him his position. Oh, with a 50-50 Senate McConnell still holds considerable power as we have a handful of Democrats who can’t always be counted on but not the kind of power he had. His power is diminished to the point that even if he picks off a Democratic Senator or two he might lose one or two of his own people now so he has to tread far more lightly than he did a month ago. That has to hurt. A lot.
Having the kind of power is something an evil, power hungry and mad with power person like McConnell who unlike Trump knows how to effectively wield every bit of that power and then LOSING it is the kind of thing that really hurts. It can cause resentment and bitterness. More importantly, when there’s an easily identifiable reason or PERSON to blame it can cause a desire for revenge.
Make no mistake – TRUMP cost McConnell his Majority Leader status and McConnell knows it. He just got re-elected and he has no fucks to give. I can even see him, at least if his wife doesn’t dump him retiring and maybe even before the end of his current term and enjoying his ill-gotten and undeserved wealth. However, before that he’s got a real shot at some serious payback. He can kneecap and then when the dude is down on the ground screaming kick the guy who cost him so much as much as he wants. Mitch McConnell is as ruthless and even vicious as a person can be.
Maybe, just maybe the loss of his power will bug him so much that he decides he wants to draw some blood and he’s got a target who is deprived of his most important tool (twitter in particular but other social media too) to fight back. If Yertle is angry enough to be out of fucks to give and doesn’t care about Fox opinion hosts excoriating him then he might do just what you suggested. Mitch McConnell is one big-ass domino and if he “falls” so will others. If as you suggest he can persuade Thune to go along then all bets are off. I’m not saying I have actual hope on this, but I’m not about to dismiss the possibility that this day could yield a pretty big surprise. Just accepting that it’s possible is mind blowing, at least for me. But I DO think it’s possible.
As I said, our Cubs won the World Series! I’m not kidding when I say years before that I’d given up hope of seeing that happen before I died. Hell, I still sometimes wonder when I think about it if I’ve been living in some cruel nightmare and it will turn out we didn’t make that incredible comeback in SPITE of our Manager. But like the Miracle on Ice it did in fact happen. So yes, I believe in miracles. Our country needs quite a few of them. Is is bat-shit cray to think that it’s possible Moscow Mitch McConnell might provide one our country truly needs by proverbially standing in front of Trump and gutting him? And smiling as Trump tried to stuff his intestines back inside?
I write this after the impeachment vote but could have written it the moment McConnell said he would vote for acquittal. All the tiny ducks heard that. They were waiting for direction to vote. There were seven braver ducks that are a little taller and could see their constituents needing Trump to be removed from the possibility of running. I firmly believe that if McConnell had not spoken, or if the ballot were secret that Trump’s ability to run or participate in politics would be sealed. And I could hate him a little less.