Over the entire Trump era, we kept wondering what happened to the Republican Party.\u00a0\u00a0After all, Trump could have been stopped in 2016, when the\u00a0Access Hollywood\u00a0<\/em>tape became public.\u00a0\u00a0Then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republican leadership could have said, we are withdrawing our nomination for Trump, and going with the former Republican Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence.\u00a0\u00a0It was definitely a subject \u201con the table\u201d in early October.\u00a0\u00a0They might have lost the election, but they would have ended Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They could have voted for the impeachment resolution against Trump at the end of the first Administration.\u00a0\u00a0After all, he did tell President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to give him \u201cdirt\u201d on prospective opponent Joe Biden, in return for hundreds of millions of US aid.\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t \u201cthe perfect call\u201d contended by Trump.\u00a0\u00a0He used government money for political coercion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, they could have voted for the second impeachment.\u00a0\u00a0That one was a \u201cslam dunk\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The President sent the mob to Congress, to these same Congressmen and Senators. He tried to use that mob force to make them deny the 2020 election results.\u00a0\u00a0Clearly, many Republican Senators wanted to vote for conviction, as that could have barred Trump for running for future office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n All they needed was the \u201ccover\u201d of the Majority Leader, still Mitch McConnell.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, McConnell chose to use as a \u201cfig leaf\u201d a questionable legal theory that Congress couldn\u2019t impeach someone who no longer held the office (making it easy to avoid consequences by simply resigning).\u00a0\u00a0As many as seventeen Republican Senators followed McConnell\u2019s lead, and would have followed the other way if the Majority Leader had chosen to vote for conviction.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, McConnell scolded Trump after the vote, and suggested the Courts could hold him accountable.\u00a0\u00a0But when Jack Smith and the Justice Department tried to do exactly that, Chief Justice John Roberts instead gave Trump, and the office of the Presidency, broad immunity from criminal prosecution for \u201cofficial acts\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of the Courts dealing with criminality, they wrote a giant \u201cget out of jail free\u201d card and handed it to Trump.\u00a0\u00a0They gave him a \u201cpass\u201d for the January 6th<\/sup>\u00a0Insurrection.\u00a0\u00a0They could have required him to stand trial for his acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this week, perhaps for the first time in the Trump Era, the Republicans in Congress found their missing courage.\u00a0\u00a0Trump finally reached the \u201cbridge too far\u201d, even for his sycophantic members of the House of Representatives.\u00a0\u00a0What was this first \u201cbreaking point\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump Administration wants to create a 1.776 Billion Dollar slush fund to \u201cpay-back\u201d victims of what they call Democratic Administration \u201clawfare\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0What it really means, is that those who committed crimes in the name of Trump and MAGA, already convicted in court, then pardoned from Federal prison by Trump; can now get cash for their troubles.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a Trump slush fund, run by Trump appointees, with no oversight by the Congress at all.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those who grew up on \u201cSchoolhouse Rock\u201d era, where Congress creates the laws (and funds the government) and the President executes it, this \u201c1776 Fund\u201d is completely done through executive orders.\u00a0\u00a0The Treasury will transfer the money to the Justice Department.\u00a0\u00a0Congress has no say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If past is prologue, there might have been some Republican \u201cinsider\u201d grumbling, and Democrats might have screamed, but Congress would let it go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The week Senate Majority Leader John Thune pulled the partisan \u201creconciliation budget\u201d from the Senate floor, for two reasons.\u00a0\u00a0First, Democrats might force an amendment requiring Republicans to actually vote on the 1776 Fund.\u00a0\u00a0And if that happened, Thune didn\u2019t have the votes to get either that amendment, or the whole budget, to pass.\u00a0\u00a0(By the way, Thune already had to remove the $1 Billion addition for the Trump \u201cBallroom\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senate Republicans aren\u2019t willing to let the Fund go forward.\u00a0\u00a0Trump thought they\u2019d fall in line, no matter what. But, even MAGA loyalist Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called it a \u201cGalactic Mistake\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0They all could have ducked, and let Trump have his fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson did what he always does when faced with a \u201crebellion\u201d within his own Party.\u00a0\u00a0He took his ball, and went home.\u00a0\u00a0Johnson recessed the House early, and sent them off for the Memorial Day holiday.\u00a0They weren\u2019t voting on the 1776 Fund, but they were about to vote on a War Powers Resolution on the Iran War.\u00a0\u00a0And Trump (and Johnson) were going to lose that vote.\u00a0\u00a0Enough Republicans in the House are fed up with Trump\u2019s war, that they were willing to join Democrats to vote against it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnson had only one way to stop it \u2013 send them home. So he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t get your hopes up.\u00a0\u00a0Like just defeated Republican Tom Massie of Kentucky, most Republicans in the House and Senate will still support Trump, ninety percent of the time.\u00a0\u00a0And, again like Massie, they know that a high profile stand against Trump might cost them their seat.\u00a0\u00a0But there is safety in numbers.\u00a0\u00a0And enough of them have joined together, that they have the \u201ccover\u201d from Trump retribution that they need, to actually show some courage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, at least, we know what it takes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Perfect Call<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Insurrection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Pass<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Breaking Point<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ducking Courage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n