The title of this post says it all. The shit hit the fan last week. The Democrats should never have taken their recess. The Republic is burning down.
Donald Trump decided to play lawyer. He had the White House council send off a raving, angry letter to three of the four Democratic chairs leading the impeachment inquiry, confirming that we are in the midst of a long-standing constitutional crisis. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the primary author of the letter was Trump himself. But more significantly, Trump also destabilized northeastern Syria, while the two goons who hired Rudy Giuliani are claiming to be part of a joint defense arrangement with the president and the Russian mob. Seriously, read that piece by Marcy Wheeler. In a week of historic events, John Dowd’s letter to the House Intelligence Committee is as significant as any Nixon quote from the Watergate saga.
I wrote the paragraphs below last week before it was confirmed on Saturday October 12 that the president, and not a real lawyer, wrote that letter:
I really like George Conway's reply to Trump’s letter. The White House letter is manifestly an impeachable offense. Article One gives the House of Representatives the "sole power of impeachment", and neither the executive nor the judicial branch can dictate the process the House chooses to use to discharge that duty. The White House is showing absolute contempt for the House's constitutional authority, and presuming to tell the Speaker what process she must follow! It's hard to believe that the White House counsel actually went to law school and passed the bar exam. Oh, and by the way, Trump has apparently given the president of Turkey the green light to invade northern Syria and massacre the Kurdish fighters who lost about 11,000 men fighting ISIS as our allies. So much for Trumpian loyalty, and so much for a coherent foreign policy. The orange one must go.
But I'm still very concerned that higher courts will agree with Trump. Then the Republic and the Constitution are officially dead. We first examined this when the administration started to refuse to share documents with the House in April, as well as start to block people from testifying. This breakage of the constitution is now unprecedented. And what is the remedy? The military is with Trump. The police departments from coast to coast are with Trump. Are we suddenly inches away from a Pinochet-style junta? Who has the power to restore regular order?
Fiona Hill’s testimony to the House ought to spell the end of Trump. In a normal world, we would be free of him and the GOP.