Today the President\u2019s defense begins in earnest. Starting at 1 pm in the Senate Chamber, the lawyers representing Donald John Trump will explain why he shouldn\u2019t be removed from office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I expect this afternoon we will hear from the academics. Alan Dershowitz will proclaim his wildly aberrant views on the US Constitution. Ken Starr will promulgate his belief that the House Managers have usurped the powers of the Justice Department.\u00a0\u00a0Their arguments will add up to:\u00a0\u00a0Article II of the Constitution gives the President near unlimited power including total control of the Justice Department.\u00a0\u00a0And the Justice Department is the only agency in the government that can investigate the President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President would have to investigate himself, and recommend his own impeachment to fit into the Constitutional model the two will create. It leaves no real way to counter Presidential misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But tonight is when the real show begins, in prime time presented to\u00a0Fox News <\/em>viewers\u00a0<\/em>for\u00a0<\/em>the first time unfettered by commentary.\u00a0\u00a0Tonight Donald Trump will achieve what he failed to get from the Ukrainian government:\u00a0\u00a0Joe Biden\u2019s name dragged through the mud.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, this is all about the 2020 election.\u00a0\u00a0Trump beat Clinton because they both had record high negative ratings among voters.\u00a0\u00a0For Trump to win in 2020, he has to replicate that scenario, including the improbably narrow popular vote victories in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.\u00a0\u00a0His opponent has to be smeared, right or wrong. Trump has to find a way to make them equally \u201cdirty\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joe Biden doesn\u2019t carry those negatives, even with a political \u201ctail\u201d that stretches back into the 1970\u2019s. If Biden wins the Democratic nomination, Trump must reduce him to this lowest common denominator to be successful. That\u2019s what made the Zelenskiy phone call so important, and what will make tonight so ugly. It\u2019s the Trump Campaign\u2019s best shot to build the \u201cstench of corruption,\u201d around Biden, undeserved after fifty years of public service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So expect that Attorneys Cipillone and Sekulow will be serving in a campaign capacity rather than a legal one tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the ancient Greek tragedies, there was always a chorus of \u201cFates\u201d chanting in the background. They foretold the future, and that future was always bleak. The best acts of man were doomed to fail; it was the Gods that determined the course of events, not men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans in the Senate might well feel the same as those mere mortals in Greek tragedy. They hope to control their fate, shutting off witnesses, evidence, and discussion by ending the Trump trial. They are desperately trying to control their future, the President\u2019s future, and the fate of the Republican Party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But just as the chorus chanted in the background in the Greek Amphitheatre, the media is foretelling events today. Republicans are rushing the process to keep information out, but the steady drip of evidence not heard in the trial continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last night the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em>published a glimpse into former National Security Advisor John Bolton\u2019s new book.\u00a0\u00a0In it, Bolton testifies that President Trump specifically ordered military aid withheld from Ukraine to leverage their government investigation into Biden.\u00a0\u00a0For the Republicans in the Senate, claiming only circumstantial evidence of Presidential misconduct, it\u2019s a \u201cnail in the coffin\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They cannot hear Bolton testify in the Senate, without being forced to acknowledge the President\u2019s offenses. And Bolton wants his say, and his profit. The American people will hear him whether he testifies in the Senate or not. And that will leave the Republicans caught outright in their cover-up of the President\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if Bolton weren\u2019t enough, we get to hear directly from the President, telling Parnas and Fruman that he will \u201ctake out\u201d Ambassador Yovanovitch.\u00a0\u00a0Why Fruman recorded an hour and more of a dinner party it\u2019s difficult to say, but we can listen to it all today, even if the Senate Republicans will not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The real story will keep coming out, drip by drip. Before the conventions, perhaps even before the end of the primaries, all America will know exactly what President Trump did. We will likely find that the House Managers were right, and that McConnell and his comrades willfully allowed a rogue Presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the Greek Gods, the electorate will determine the fate, not only of President Trump, but also of the Republican Party as a whole. While the Republicans may control the moment in the Senate, the power of facts will ultimately be revealed. Let\u2019s hope the voters will show the wisdom of Olympians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Drip of Truth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n