MADAME DILLY-DALLY — The Weekly Opine

Maybe Pelosi and Trump are like pro wrestlers who pretend to hate each other in the ring, then go out to dinner and clubbing after the match. (Photo credit: uspresidentialelectionnews)

Dithering at a smorgasbord of excuses while Rome burns.

When I was a freshman in college living in a dormitory, there was a senior who was the smartest guy on my dorm floor. He was a chemistry/physics/math wiz and one day gave me advice about multiple choice tests. He said that after reviewing the options, if not 100% certain of the correct answer, go with your initial instinct and leave it at that. The Weekly Opine should have heeded his advice.

Initially, The Weekly Opine was opposed to Nancy Pelosi serving a second stint as Speaker of the House. We believed a new voice was warranted, someone with wisdom and experience but modern and progressive. Someone with intensity coursing through their veins.

While Pelosi brings immense savvy and experience to normal day-to-day activities, our view was she should be a valued consultant but not speaker. Like ex-Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Pelosi does not project strength and inspiration, often seeming off-balance. And she is an easy target for the opposition.

When Pelosi impressively took Trump apart during the government shutdown, we reversed and sang her praises along with the rest of the choir. But alas, we forgot. Trump is such a weak negotiator that a top high school debate club member could outmaneuver the president. Pelosi did what Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un regularly do, out-negotiate Mr. Art of the Deal.

Now, observing Pelosi’s ineffective dilly-dallying regarding executing her sworn constitutional duty, it is apparent the initial instinct not to support Pelosi for speaker was correct. She is failing badly in her responsibility to rid America of the biggest threat to our democracy since the Civil War.

Even Pelosi’s committee chairs, who acted like servants carrying her in a medieval litter, have come to realize it’s (past) time to launch an impeachment inquiry. Not impeachment but an impeachment inquiry.

After getting sand kicked in their faces while in the House minority, chairmen Nadler, Schiff and Cummings appear ready to roll up their sleeves. (Photo credit: New York Post)

Boys to men

Rep. Jerry Nadler (Judiciary Committee), Rep. Adam Schiff (Intelligence Committee) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (Oversight Committee) are breaking with Pelosi. Before, each offered toothless threats to do this or that, if witnesses did not cooperate. Now, after being poked in the eye repeatedly by the middle fingers of Attorney General Bill Barr, former-White House Counsel Don McGhan and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the Dem House committee chairs are evolving from boys to men. The issuance of subpoenas and contempt charges have started to produce results, compelling closed-door testimony from the likes of Don Jr. and Hope Hicks.

(Why were they permitted to testify in private? The best way to sway public opinion is to get this in front of the public. Surely, Mueller won’t be allowed to testify behind closed doors.)

Pelosi’s litany of excuses are well-worn and worn out. Trump’s not worth impeaching. The political risk is too great. Impeachment will fire up Trump’s base. The House needs to see the Mueller report. The House needs to see the unredacted Mueller report. The House needs to see where the evidence leads (has she even read Mueller’s report?). The House needs Mueller to testify. Musings about Trump going to prison. Borderline incoherent rambling that all options are on the table. Dilly, dally.

Maybe most maddening is when Pelosi says the American people aren’t there yet. Duh, you are the highest-ranking Democrat in the country. Do what leaders are supposed to do…lead the American people to the truth, rather than count on the people to bail you out in 2020.

Rep. Justin Amash, the first GOPer congressman to call for impeachment, should win one of those end-of-the-year awards. (Photo credit: CNN)

Person of the Year?

The final nudge for Pelosi should have been when a Republican House member plainly and accurately tweeted that Trump should be impeached, based on his reading of the redacted Mueller report.

In one momentous act via Twitter, Republican congressman Justin Amash of Michigan shamed House Speaker Pelosi and committee chairs Nadler, Schiff and Cummings. Amash’s tweets call into question any House members and senators who were/are still in fantasyland about not having enough evidence that Trump must go. (Amash should be a contender for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year award.)

Rep. Amash’s tweets a month ago laid bare the leading excuse House Dems hide behind - that they must see the unredacted Mueller report, before deciding on an impeachment inquiry. In his tweets, Amash did what Pelosi’s flubbed at doing. He wrote in clearly communicated, concise language the case for impeachment. Amash’s irrefutable point-of-view was easy to read and understand. No subterfuge or misdirection when he tweeted:

1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report.

2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.

3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances.

4. Few members of Congress have read the report.

Amash followed up with more tweets explaining, in understandable detail, what led him to the four conclusions above.

At a subsequent Amash townhall meeting, (which Dems should be doing regularly), we learned that many people are buying Trump and Barr’s lies about the report. Because most of us are simply not going to read a 448-page report, it is up to Dems to run a full-scale campaign to show Americans the truth. And the truth is in the 9-page executive summary, which anyone can find the time to read. Speaker Pelosi is somehow missing, or willfully ignoring, this direct pathway to informing America.

During Amash’s townhall meeting, a woman admitted she gets her news from conservative sources and was under the belief the Mueller report exonerated Trump. After hearing from Amash concerning what the Mueller report really says, she supports Congress doing what is necessary to uncover the truth.

Even dug-in MAGAs know Trump is a criminal. They are obviously OK with that. But when one of the original Tea Party congressmen, who spoke of never wanting to work in a bi-partisan way with President Obama, comes out for impeachment, then Mr. Apprentice’s gig should be up before the 2020 election.

Which makes it even more puzzling why Speaker Pelosi is protecting someone she wants to see in prison.

Nine (9) pages!

Even the 9-page executive summary of the Mueller report proves unequivocally that Trump is exactly the kind of danger to U.S. democracy the Founders envisioned, when they laid out the constitutional path to impeachment and removal of a traitor president.

Democrats and progressive media should have recognized the fact that most Americans will never read the 448-page Mueller report. But the executive summary is an easy to digest 9 pages, when printed on standard size 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Democrats unrelenting message the past three months should have been, “READ THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. IT’S ONLY 9 PAGES!”

What exactly is DNC Chairman Tom Perez doing?

It is amazing that Dems are relying so much on the 2020 election to remove Trump. And Dems are already tripping over themselves with 24 candidates, a silly number of entries.

In 2016, Democrats had Hillary Clinton, who Obama called the most qualified candidate in history. She was matched up against the worst candidate in history. And she got beat. Yes, Russian meddling. Yes, Comey’s ill-timed gaffe. But would the greatest team in the history of basketball lose to the worst team in the history of basketball? No, not even if the worst team was allowed to play seven players and were good friends with the referees.

A huge question for Dems is, if Trump wins in 2020, then what? It will probably be more problematic to impeach him after he’s been elected a second time.

Would Dems sit back and allow another four years of Trump, Barr, Giuliani, Conway, Mnuchin, Carson, Devos, Bolton, Jared and Ivanka? Or would they suddenly decide the Trump administration has to go? What makes Dems think there would be more Senate Republican support post-2020? If Democrats think they can persuade Senate Republicans to turn on Trump post-2020, why not do that right now?

Another Dem excuse is that impeaching Trump would give us fake-Christian Mike Pence, who would be as bad as Trump. Criminally speaking, Pence would not be as bad as Trump. Frankly, if Trump is removed before 2020, a Pence presidency would last 3-6 months. That is preferable to another 18 months of Trump, with potentially four more years if Dems blow the 2020 election.

House cleaning

It only took days for Republicans to rally against Rep. Amash after his impeach Trump tweets. A contender quickly surfaced to challenge Amash in his next primary. No surprise, Trump and Trump, Jr. began tweeting about what a bad guy Amash is.

Maybe Democrats should do the same thing. If Pelosi keeps slow poking, primary her. Same for any other House Dems not on board with opening an impeachment inquiry.

What more significant decision will a House Speaker face than bringing an impeachment inquiry against a president? Yet Pelosi shies away from her constitutional responsibility, during the biggest historical presidential moment for Congress and the country since Richard Nixon and Watergate.

Pelosi and many other Dems are pretending as if they just became aware of Trump’s criminal conduct with the release of the redacted Mueller report. In fact, anyone remotely paying attention knew long before the 2018 midterm “blue wave” that Trump is a crook. And that was the point of the “blue wave,” to get rid of Trump.

Unfortunately, many Democrats lack the strong will necessary to compete against the worst presidential administration in American history. Criminal activity unmistakably rests like smelling salts under their noses. Obstruction sounds undeniably in their ears, like a wayward car alarm. But too many Dems are still hesitant.

To their credit, the leading Democratic presidential contenders are unified that Trump should be impeached. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Texan Beto O’Rourke say Trump must be impeached.

Sadly, Speaker Pelosi sits idle, flummoxed and unable to demonstrate the decisive leadership that is constitutionally required. Her chickenshit, “lead-from-behind” comment a few weeks ago, that Trump is “self-impeaching,” reflects pure weakness.

Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe says of timid, full-of-excuses House Democrats, “Caution becomes cowardice, cowardice becomes betrayal...betrayal of the U.S. Constitution.”

Because she is abdicating her authority to lead a co-equal branch of government, and continues to enable Trump, Pelosi should immediately be removed from her position as Speaker of the House.