The Democrats have been talking about impeaching Trump since before he was even sworn into office. That’s the Democrats’ own Ukrainian telephone call: Of course Trump took an interest in whether political corruption in Ukraine — and please don’t sell me the Saint Hunter Biden story — would benefit him and his party politically. I assume Barack Obama also was keenly aware that his administration’s investigation of the Trump campaign might help his party politically — that doesn’t render the investigation necessarily corrupt or baseless. Democrats are calculating every step of their impeachment campaign as though it were an ordinary electoral exercise — which is something very close to what it is. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that there is nothing else to it. The symmetries there are too obvious to belabor.
And so we are obliged to ask the question: Who in Washington has the moral authority, the political intelligence, and the patriotism to see the country through this episode in a way that fortifies our institutions rather than undermines them, that leaves the country better off rather than damaged, that builds trust instead of pissing it away?
Answer: Nobody.
Trust is not an option. That leaves us with the second-best option: surveillance.
And so Nancy Pelosi must end the secret hearings and closed-door depositions, and put the process, the politics, and the evidence before the public.
The Democrats have been talking about impeaching Trump since before he was even sworn into office. That’s the Democrats’ own Ukrainian telephone call: Of course Trump took an interest in whether political corruption in Ukraine — and please don’t sell me the Saint Hunter Biden story — would benefit him and his party politically. I assume Barack Obama also was keenly aware that his administration’s investigation of the Trump campaign might help his party politically — that doesn’t render the investigation necessarily corrupt or baseless. Democrats are calculating every step of their impeachment campaign as though it were an ordinary electoral exercise — which is something very close to what it is. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that there is nothing else to it. The symmetries there are too obvious to belabor.
And so we are obliged to ask the question: Who in Washington has the moral authority, the political intelligence, and the patriotism to see the country through this episode in a way that fortifies our institutions rather than undermines them, that leaves the country better off rather than damaged, that builds trust instead of pissing it away?
Answer: Nobody.
Trust is not an option. That leaves us with the second-best option: surveillance.
And so Nancy Pelosi must end the secret hearings and closed-door depositions, and put the process, the politics, and the evidence before the public.
If they’re not telling you things it’s because they don’t want you to know them. And if they don’t want you to know them, it’s because they know you’d be angry if you did.
ROGER KIMBALL: The Democrats’ impeachment inquiry is a doomed and desperate time-buying ploy.
h/t GR