{"id":1500,"date":"2019-01-28T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2019-01-28T07:01:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T12:01:12","slug":"running-out-the-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/01\/28\/running-out-the-clock\/","title":{"rendered":"Running Out the Clock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Running Out the Clock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like some kind of \u201cmadman\u201d strategy.\u00a0\u00a0Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani goes on multiple Sunday morning news shows, changing the narrative of the Moscow Trump Tower story.\u00a0\u00a0It went from nothing, to a deal no one cared about that Michael Cohen was \u201cplaying\u201d with, to a deal they were involved with until spring of 2016, to something the Trump staff worked on until the election.\u00a0\u00a0Giuliani \u201caccidentally\u201d talked about tapes, and seemed to \u201cgive away\u201d secrets of the Trump defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He sounded at times confused, occasionally deranged, and often unprofessional.  It leaves observers with two choices:  either Giuliani is incompetent and should be immediately fired, or he has a strategy that is so obscure that even the \u201cexperts\u201d can\u2019t follow it.  The prosecutor of the mob, the mayor of 9-11, has either lost has skills, or\u2026we’re not so sure what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the great fears of the Trump White House was Democratic control of the House of Representatives. With Nancy Pelosi as Speaker, the President is faced with two years of investigation from multiple committees and their chairmen:  Schiff\u2019s Intelligence, Water\u2019s Financial Services, Cumming\u2019s Oversight, and ultimately, Nadler\u2019s Judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairman Schiff particularly wants to get started; after the Intelligence Committees\u2019 debacle under Republican Chairman Nunes, acting as a defensive wall for the Trump organization. Schiff wants to make things \u201cright.\u201d But Republican Minority Leader McCarthy has found another way to impede the investigation; he has failed to appoint Republican members to the committee.  By preventing Republican participation the Committee is unable to reach a quorum of members, and cannot conduct any business.  The stall is \u201cin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we approached Christmas of 2018, there was a clear \u201cdeal\u201d to be made for the Southern Border.  The current theory is that the far-right media, led by Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, nixed a deal to keep the government open (I wrote an essay on it for Christmas – Merry Christmas Rush<\/a>) and so portions of the government were closed for thirty-four days.  The focus of the media, and the public, was on the impact of the closings: air travel in disarray, law enforcement working without pay, tax returns stalled, food stamps threatened, government workers in food lines.  While the shutdown is temporarily over, the President still threatens its return in three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like so much confusion and distraction, from Giuliani to Congress to shut downs.  But there is a clear impact of each of these actions:  delay, delay, delay: delay of Congressional action into the Trump Presidency, delay of impeachment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps this is the real underlying strategy of the Trump legal team.  This \u201cband of fools\u201d may actually be playing out a strategic long-term game.  Judge from how the electoral calendar is established.  It\u2019s almost February, 2019, the first shots of the 2020 Presidential campaigns have already been fired.  The Republican National Committee has pledged their fealty to the Trump Presidency, and multiple Democrats have already entered the race.  We are on the cusp of the campaigns, the Iowa caucuses are just 371 days away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the Iowa voters straggle through the snow to their meetings, once the counting has begun, the clock will have run on Presidential impeachment.  Congress will not put themselves in the position of competing with voters for the power to choose the President.  This is the ultimate argument of the Trump team, the same argument they made to negate the impact of Trump\u2019s sexual dalliances.  \u201cLet the people decide if it\u2019s important\u201d they said, the results of the election adjudicates the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It makes some sense.\u00a0Even James Comey, with inside knowledge into what really happened in the 2016 election and no friend of the President, has called for the 2020 election to be the determining factor, not impeachment.\u00a0\u00a0Comey\u2019s theory is that if the President is removed any other way than through the electoral process, it will leave a \u201crump base\u201d that will forever feel they have been cheated.\u00a0\u00a0Only an election could convince them that it was \u201cfair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That will become even truer as the clock ticks closer to November of 2020.\u00a0\u00a0The Presidential strategy may be much simpler than we thought.\u00a0Delay today, delay tomorrow, delay this week and this month; find a way to stall and keep America distracted.\u00a0\u00a0It doesn\u2019t have to be until November of 2020, it only has to make it for another ten months.\u00a0\u00a0Then the argument will change from what happened to 2016, to letting 2020 determine the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats in the House are concerned that their actions not be seem as a \u201crush to judgment.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0They want to make sure the Democrats can be seen a \u201cgoverning,\u201d not just investigating and attacking.\u00a0\u00a0But each day that President Trump is in office, another action is taken that damages our country and world.\u00a0\u00a0So while it might be easier to \u201cwait for the people to decide,\u201d there is an undetermined cost to be paid.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cmeter is running\u201d on the Trump Presidency:\u00a0\u00a0we will all have to pay the fare for his actions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all about time; and the clock\u2019s running now.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Running Out the Clock It seems like some kind of \u201cmadman\u201d strategy.\u00a0\u00a0Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani goes on multiple Sunday morning news shows, changing the narrative of the Moscow Trump Tower story.\u00a0\u00a0It went from nothing, to a deal no one cared about that Michael Cohen was \u201cplaying\u201d with, to a deal they were involved with until … Continue reading “Running Out the Clock”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRunning Out the Clock : Our America - 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