CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION-Generally people blame the liar for his falsehoods, but matters can be more complicated as we are advised by the adage, “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”
In addition, the law does not permit one to rely on obvious lies. For example, one cannot sue a person for fraud when they know that the deceiver is lying. If a used car salesman stands next to a beat-up Pinto and proclaims it to be a new Cadillac and then the buyer pays $75,000 for a Caddy, the law will not help him get back his money.
Anyone Able to Count to Two Knows Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s a Liar
As I previously explained, the U.S. Constitution establishes a two-step process for Presidential impeachment. The House has the sole power to conduct the fact gathering of testimony and documents. The Senate has the sole power to conduct the trial on the House’s articles of impeachment. No one may interfere with the House’s fact gathering or with the Senate’s trial. That’s what “sole power” means.
Yet, the entire nation seems unable to grasp how this two-step process works. The fact gathering happens in the House; the trial occurs in the Senate. Let’s try this again. The Senate may not interfere with the House’s fact gathering and the House may not interfere with the Senate’s trial.
So what do we have? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prematurely stops the House’s gathering of facts and then interferes with the Senate’s conduct of the trial by demanding that the Senate engage in fact gathering.
Like Trump, Pelosi Suffers from Some Serious Mental Defect
“One, two.” That’s not hard to understand. Pelosi must be suffering from some sort of mental defect. She is in effect telling falsehoods when she acts as if she had the constitutional right to interfere with the Senate. So why can’t the Dems reign in Pelosi who is unable to distinguish between step one, where she has sole power, and step two where the Senate has sole power?
Here’s Where We Dems Are Seriously Screwing up
We Dems have the duty to stop Democrat leaders who are grossly incompetent, seriously mentally ill, or who openly and persistently trash the Constitution. Yet, we rally behind Pelosi while she tramples on the U.S. Constitution which gives the Senate the sole power to conduct the trial.
“My Group Right or Wrong” is the Battle Cry of Immorality
When it comes to a bedrock issue like the clear language of the U.S. Constitution, which is the basis of our entire way of life, we cannot support anyone who openly and persistently violates it. Of course, the greatest irony of this cycle of anti-Constitutional stupidity is that it occurs when one-half the nation wants to impeach the president for high crimes and misdemeanors, but the Speaker of the House’s anti-constitutional behavior is as blatant as Trump’s.
Anyone who thinks that Trump’s mental illness poses a danger to the world needs only look at the aftermath of the killing of Qassem Soleimani to confirm their fears. Assuming for now that the killing of QS was legit, a mentally ill histrionic like Trump cannot help but make an incoherent mess of the aftermath. As soon as the issue of Iranian reprisals arises, Trump threatens to destroy Iranian cultural sites. One cannot control a histrionic because a histrionic has limited mental capacity to comprehend consequences. All Trump understands is that a big threat gets him cheers yet he has no ability to comprehend he is threatening war crimes. “The United States is a party to two significant international agreements that explicitly outlaw attacks on cultural sites: the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Hague Convention of 1954”; and most likely his actions would be a violation of our own War Crimes Act (18 U.S. Code §2441).
Sane minds in the administration retracted Trump’s outrageous threat, but no Dem has protested Pelosi’s weeks of anti-Constitutional interference with the Senate’s sole power to conduct the trial. Rep. Adam Schiff’s silence in the face of Pelosi’s constant badgering of the Senate has so discredited him that he has no credibility left. Rep. Schiff’s silence has been particularly problematic since he chaired the House Intel Committee’s fact gathering phrase of impeachment and he allowed Pelosi to shut it down. Schiff’s duty was clear – ignore Pelosi’s premature halting of the full investigation of Trump’s high crimes and misdemeanors. Then, let Pelosi take her retaliation against him. At least, Schiff would have preserved his honor and integrity.
When We Dems see this gross trampling of the Constitution, we do nothing. If a toddler constantly throws his food on the floor, who is to blame -- the toddler or are the parents? Dems are quick to call out the GOP for not corralling Trump, yet the entire Democrat party supports Pelosi’s trashing of the Constitution.
Under Pelosi, the Dem’s conduct constitutes rampant anti-Constitutionalism. They know now that they have so abrogated their duty to gather the facts that Trump will not be removed. As written here previously, the last thing Pelosi wants is for the GOP to Nixonize Trump since that would greatly enhance the GOP’s prospects of success in November 2020. Thus, she shut down the House fact gathering just as GOP opinion was turning against Trump.
If Trump’s impeachment was frivolous like Clinton’s, the matter would not be so grave. Trump, however, is seriously mentally unbalanced. Any Democrat who recognizes that Trump poses an unwarranted threat needs to address the Dem’s Pelosi problem. Just as Trump will not stop unless his party stops him, Pelosi will not stop unless her party stops her. There comes a time when we need to hold accountable the political parties that keep their own miscreants in power.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Photo: AP. Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.