Feb. 2, 2020
After a brief intermission, obviously timed so all the Christian legislators could get to church on Sunday (did you ever wonder why the Jewish legislators didn’t get Saturday off, the Muslim legislators didn’t get Friday off, and the Atheist legislators don’t even get a designated day of rest, much less a ‘un-holy day’ named in their honor? Oh well, so much for political correctness!), it was ‘back to work’ and the curtain opened on Act II, in the special chamber set up for Trump’s impeachment trial, in our nation’s capital.
After watching the antics of our favorite republican senators for several days and nights I was reminded of the play, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum!”—which was based on a play written about the year 170 BC by a Roman playwright named Plautus. It was really, really funny, had a long run on Broadway, and eventually, made into a movie of the same name. Unfortunately, the only element missing in the non-professionally-acted drama now resuming in Wash D.C. is ‘comic relief’. The idea occurred to me (concurrent with thinking about ‘A Funny Thing’-) that, if only we could bring back Will Rogers to replace John Roberts as Presiding Judge, the few watching electorate would have a chance to enjoy the proceedings and the republican senators would be shamed enough to consider the importance of this event and act like adults instead of like bored kindergarteners being lectured on their lack of manners by the school principal.
The big news, as we started Act II, was that the written words of my second favorite political ‘Loose Cannon’, John Bolton, the Trump-fired/resigned(?) ex-National Security Advisor to our ‘Perfect’ President, have caused a crack in the Republican’s armor of indifference. Even Mitch has now publically admitted that he may not be able to prevent the House members from calling new witnesses or subpoenaing new documents that would be important to the trial.
Watching Mitt Romney drinking chocolate milk from a glass bottle gave me an ‘inspirational’ idea. What if: all the Republican Senators who Donald Trump has demeaned—from the time of his announced candidacy for the office of President up to today—finally found the moral courage to voice their true opinion of his conduct both as a candidate and, since his election, as ‘President’? Mitt shows signs of regaining his moral courage. Maybe Mitt should take Ted, Marco, and a few other demeaned-by-Trump Senators into the chamber cloak room for a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting and then tell their republican colleagues what they really think of their ‘Perfect’ President in front of Judge Roberts? That would create not just a crack but a gaping hole in the republican’s armor of indifference.
One more day of question and then Mitch is going to try to shut the ‘Show’ down. Pardon the bad pun, but it is not even playing to a full house. About all I’ve learned, from the questions and answers sessions so far, is that The Republican Senators still don’t know right from wrong and Alan Dershowitz doesn’t have a clue about constitutional law. Dershowitz certainly made a fool of himself with the statement about an elected President being able to do anything he wants to do to insure his re-election. And, maybe someone will explain to me why Rand Paul made his grandstanding play to get Judge Roberts to reveal the name of the whistle-blower? If he had any guts, he would have just shouted the name in the court room and faced the legal consequences. Such is the essence of a ‘Gutless Wonder’! Sorry, I’ve been looking for some politician who would fit that wonderfully descriptive term for a long time—since ‘G’eorge (‘W’) my favorite ‘Gutless Wonder’—left office. Viola! I’ve found a few more! Ted Cruz is now my second choice, Marco Rubio is in third position, and Jeb Bush is in fourth—but is nowhere (in the political arena) to be found. And, you sometimes wonder just how and why Donald J. Trump got chosen by the Republican Party to run for President???? Donald doesn’t quite fit the ‘Gutless’ part of that description. However, ‘An Ego, Avarice, and Greed-Driven Wonder’ character-fault combination just might describe him, ‘perfectly’.
And so, what happened Friday night? Only two republican senators had the moral courage to vote for new witnessed and crossed the line so forcefully drawn in the political sand by Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Republican Senators Susan Collins from Maine and Mitt Romney from Utah dared to express the courage of their convictions by their votes for new witnesses. The rest offered lame excuses as to why they wanted a person who didn’t really win the electorate vote, and has become an international joke as being ‘President’ of the United States of America, should continue in office. I can easily sum up the reasons most of the Republican Senators offered as, “We agree that he is guilty of the two ‘Charges of Impeachment’ but, we don’t believe those facts are cause-worthy to throw him out of the office to which he was duly elected”. I have noticed that not one nay-sayer has mentioned the fact that Trump DID NOT win the popular election. He only won the Presidential election because of a corrupt Electoral College vote. I consider the post-impeachment-trial vote explanation of Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the most confusing and theory-confounding statement of all. I think it went something like this, “Of course we all know that Trump is guilty and should be impeached but, throwing him out of office would offend his supporters and possibly lead to further divisions of our already fractured society”. I guess this meant that she didn’t have the balls to vote her conscious and is willing to give Trump another year to start WWIII.
Hubris said that he prefers carrots to politics. I think he is one smart horse. We will have to wait until following events and history sees, and judges, this political soap opera. How Donald J. Trump, a (as the Aussies would say), “A blooming Idiot!” can ‘mind-control’ the almost entire United States Republican Senate, is a mystery to me. However, it probably says a lot about the mental and moral acuity of our Republican Senators. Until later- it’s Hi Ho Hubris Aawaay!
Lou
Copyright, February 2, 2020, Louis J. Christen