BLUE WAVE OR WHITE FLAG? — The Weekly Opine

Buoyant enthusiasm after the 2018 midterm election now gives way to anger over slow-poke House Democrats. (Photo credit: The Atlantic, Getty Images)

A de facto re-election committee for Trump.

House Democrats seem hellbent on squandering the powerful blue wave result they achieved during the 2018 mid-term election.

The underpinning of the blue wave? A collective desire to remove Trump from the presidency. Healthcare, climate-change, the rigged economy, the disappearing middle-class, the ongoing unjust treatment of minorities and women, immigration and the environment were at the top of most everyone’s issues list.

However, fueling the blue wave was a formidable third-rail current that recognized fixing key issues would mean removing Trump from the White House, ASAP. Starting with impeachment. Accordingly, many supporters believed Dems would move quickly to open an impeachment inquiry, expediting evidence gathering to persuade non-believers that Trump is indeed a criminal, and unfit for the presidency.

Curiously, the House of Representatives have excused themselves from their duty to uphold the Constitution. Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort being sent to prison was already in motion before Democrats took control of the House. When Michael Flynn is finally introduced to prison guards, Democrats cannot take credit for that either.

The big fish is Donald Trump, aka Individual-1. So what is with Dems? Are they inept or is there more to it?

Mr. Nice Guy

To begin with, Democrats are too nice. The late-Ed Schultz, host of “The Ed Show” weekdays on MSNBC from 2009 to 2015, displayed the right combination of fact-based knowledge, tenacity and, when necessary, bombast. The Michelle Obama mantra to “go high” when GOPers go low would not have registered with Schultz. It is, after all, bad advice in modern Washington politics.

The suggestion here is that Dems throw more 100 mph fastballs. Turning the other cheek is a surefire way to end up with two black eyes.

Former President Barack Obama made a huge mistake when he produced his long-form birth certificate (in 2011, nearly three years after he’d been elected president) and, in the process, validated Trump. Obama will one day be recognized as one of America’s best presidents of the 21st Century, yet his accommodation to Trump set the table for Republicans to disrespect his presidency, his legacy and the Democratic party.

By submitting to Trump and the Tea Party, Obama created a path whereby Trump, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and media asses like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity could, in subtle nuance or overtly, question the legitimacy of his presidency. This was never more apparent than when McConnell blocked Obama from filling a Supreme Court vacancy.

When the opportunity arose to dish a warranted payback blow to Trump and the GOP, Obama deferred to McConnell. Even after McConnell refused to sign a bipartisan statement of condemnation regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election, Obama played nice.

After being insulted and marginalized for eight years by Republicans, Obama decided not to inform the American electorate about Russian interference. Today, it is still mindboggling. Especially given Trump’s pleading for Russia and Wikileaks to release information about Hillary Clinton…which they did.

What surfaced a few weeks after the 2016 election, regarding Russian interference and the Trump administration’s close ties to Russia, exposed Obama’s colossal error in judgment, going “high” while Trump, Russia and McConnell went “low” – and won.

Where’s the urgency? House Dem leaders (L-R) Adam Schiff, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler and Elijah Cummings act like they need spark plug replacement. (Photo credit: CNN screenshot)

Helping the other side

What were Democrats doing during the two months between November’s blue wave and January’s swearing in? Since they assumed control of the House, Dems’ actions reflect unpreparedness for the task at hand. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her committee chairs have been playing a game of defensive reaction, rather than offensive direction.

When gifts are given to the House, such as Trump’s interview with Lester Holt when he admitted obstruction, and the Mueller Report, which gave Pelosi and her House everything needed to begin an impeachment inquiry, Dems instead hesitate, refusing to carry out their constitutional duties.

Officially condemning Trump, as House Democrats did last week, is toothless. It would be like the NBA fining a player - who makes $20 million per year – a mere $10,000 for complaining about officiating. Not at all a deterrent. And what has Trump done since the official condemnation resolution? Led a racist chant of “Send her home!” during a MAGA rally the next day, followed by more tweets and comments that easily qualify as going “low” racist.

A prime example of Democrat slumbering is House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts.

Within days of the November 6, 2018 blue wave, Neal must have known he would be chair of House Ways and Means. A competent executive would have immediately started behind-the-scenes planning and strategizing, anticipating the big moment on January 3, 2019 when he would officially become chair.

Within weeks after the swearing-in of the 116th Congress, Neal should have subpoenaed Trump’s tax returns. Instead, Neal waited until May 10, 2019 to subpoena Trump’s federal tax returns, which was promptly and illegally refused by the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department. Then Neal waited until July 2, 2019 to file a lawsuit to force the IRS and Treasury to hand over Trump’s taxes. The lawsuit is pending.

On July 8, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into legislation a law clearing the way for Chairman Neal to obtain Trump’s state tax returns. But Neal has done nothing, instead waiting (and hoping) the lawsuit against the IRS paves the way to obtain Trump’s federal tax returns.

Neal’s refusal to pounce on the opportunity to get Trump’s state taxes has inspired the 30-year old mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts to announce his candidacy, challenging the 70-year old Neal in the next Democratic primary.

Small step forward, big step sideways

The progressive media has, on one hand, delivered outstanding investigative reporting, uncovering wrongdoing by the Trump administration and his cronies, even before the special counsel was convened. On the other hand, at critical moments, they are easily distracted by Trump’s sleight-of-hand.

Why haven’t progressive media (and Dems) alerted the public to the Mueller Report Executive Summary? All they do is harp on the “daunting” 448-page full report, as if they want to scare people away.

The Weekly Opine “Share The Link” initiative, focused on the 9-page executive summary, launched last Thursday. The campaign has received an excellent response from many on Twitter, including former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, CNN political commentator David Swerdlick, former Associate White House Counsel, Ian Bassin and actor/comedian John Fugelsang. In the spirit of better late than never, here again is the link to the 9-page executive summary. Read and share the link with family and friends.

lawfareblog.com/full-text-mueller-reports-executive-summaries

Last Sunday, MSNBC’s Ari Melber hosted “The Mueller Report: What it all means.” The show was formulaic but useful decoding the report for the uninformed. The guests, most of whom appear regularly on MSNBC, repeated much of what they’ve been saying for months. It was ludicrous inviting serial liar Kellyanne Conway to even appear, and it was lunacy to permit Conway to have the last word closing out the show’s segment on Volume I and collusion. No surprise, Kellyanne said no collusion.

The huge miss is that Democrat representatives, senators, the Democratic National Committee and progressive media have not implored Americans to read the executive summary. Their #1 theme since Mueller released his report four months ago should have been, “Unless you’re in Congress or the Department of Justice, don’t bother with 448 pages. Just read the 9-page executive summary.”

Meek, hesitant and at times befuddled, Robert Mueller confirmed Russian interference and Trump’s criminality but appeared fearful of clarifying his findings. (Photo credit: CNN screenshot)

Mueller’s last stand

House Dems stumbled scheduling Robert Mueller’s testimony. Any of my administrative assistants from my corporate days could have handled this task. Select two consecutive days, send the subpoena, and the Intelligence Committee gets him the first day and the Judiciary Committee gets him the next day.

Surprisingly, the House chose to have Mueller testify about obstruction first, which was covered in Volume 2, followed by Russian interference, which was in Volume 1. It would have been much better to hear Russian interference first and then connect how Trump obstructed that investigation.

Testifying, Mueller agreed Trump was not exonerated of obstruction of justice. Mueller said he did not indict Trump because of the OLC opinion that sitting presidents cannot be indicted. Then he tried to walk it back. He said Trump can be indicted after he leaves office. Mueller agreed multiple witnesses lied and/or destroyed evidence. Mueller indicated Attorney General Barr is misleading the American people. Mueller agreed the Trump campaign welcomed Russia’s help and that the Trump family tried to cash in.

Beyond that, Mueller, who turns 75 soon, was reticent, feeble and sometimes confused. It was an embarrassing performance by a great patriot. Mueller refused to answer more than 150 questions and often was less than forthright, saying “generally” when the obvious answer was “yes,” based on evidence written in his report. He lacked conviction and seem afraid to provide clarity. While Mueller’s testimony was harmful to Trump it felt incomplete, regardless of how many progressive media pundits complimented the distinguished Mueller.

The bottom line is, we learned little from Mueller we did not already know.

Surprisingly, Dems did not ask questions of Mueller’s top aide Aaron Zebley, who was sworn-in and available during the second hearing. Why not test the waters to see if Zebley would give more insight than Mueller?

For Dems, standing pat for another year and a half (or another five and a half years if Trump wins again) is a dangerous non-starter that many fail to include in the political calculation.

Want to protect (and improve) healthcare? Remove Trump. Want to properly address climate change? Remove Trump. Want to improve the fortunes of soybean farmers? Remove Trump. Want to repair the damage to our long-standing alliances? Remove Trump. Want to push white supremacists backwards? Remove Trump. Want to start the process of ending the inhumanity dealt to immigrants at the border? Remove Trump. Want to re-instill dignity at the White House? Remove Trump.

Tim Wise, an anti-racism activist who helped defeat David Duke back in the day, believes Dems should stop acting like a debate team and act like cheerleaders. That is, wonky policy discussions won’t outdo psychological arguments. Wise says Trump is leading a white resentment movement based on emotion and he is like a human opioid who tells his followers he can heal their pain. Democrats should lead with the moral argument and link everything to the moral argument; healthcare, climate change, the economy, immigration, etc.

I said before the mid-terms that some DNC campaign ads should show 1930s Nazi storm troopers marching in the streets manhandling people, then morph into white supremacists marching in Charlottesville and Proud Boys fighting in Portland.

Visually and viscerally demonstrate to Americans where this is headed if Trump and McConnell win again.

America completely falling apart is not farfetched and is not far into the future if Dems don’t toughen up.