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| Robert Mueller's press conference yesterday |
Although the key Democrats in the House such as House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi are still not fully on board with it, they seem to be
inching ever closer to it. Some formerly reluctant to impeach have been turned
and say that he should be. Especially those running for President.
But I believe that congress will not vote to impeach just
yet. They want more proof so that an impeachment in the House will generate a
vote in the senate to remove the President form office.
That will clearly not happen in the Republican controlled
senate. They have no interest in removing a man who has implemented the
conservative policies they have all supported and were not able to pass during
the previous 8 years of a liberal Democratic President. They believe that
the Mueller Report did not sufficiently prove that there was obstruction. And
they obviously want to move on.
To the Democrats surprise there was not enough evidence to
indict the President on collusion. That has basically been removed as an avenue
towards impeachment. However, they have spun the non-committal response to
obstruction charges, as evidence that there was. They believe that Mueller’s
press conference yesterday makes that even clearer. At least that is how the
liberal mainstream media is spinning it.
But does it? Is there anything Mueller’s said yesterday that
we don’t already know? If there is, I can’t see it. If I understand correctly -
in essence Mueller report said that his committee could not come to a
determination whether or not there was an indictable crime of obstruction of
justice.There was disagreement among the committee members about that. And that
in any case, they said a sitting President cannot be indicted so it was a moot
point. And finally the report said that it should be left to other
agencies to examine things further.
Democrats swooped down on Mueller’s reiteration of that yesterday
as something new. It wasn’t. It has been mentioned so many times in the past by
Democrats that Mueller did not have to say it again.
True, it wasn’t an exoneration. The report would have said
so if it was. But it was not conclusive. And as noted it is also true there were differences of opinion about that among the committee members. But
no one mentioned that yesterday in the media. It was all about Mueller saying
that he did not exonerate the President. Which to Democrats is tantamount to
being guilty I guess.
Here is the way I see it. I believe the President tried to
obstruct justice. Multiple times. That was evident in the report. I don’t think
anyone disputes that. The point however is that he didn’t. All of those
attempts were thwarted by his staff who refused to carry out his wishes. So in
the end there was no obstruction at all – albeit not for the lack of trying.
But what does it mean that he tried? He is the President. He
doesn’t need a subordinate to do his bidding. He can do it himself! He didn’t.
So what this really boils down to is a desire to do something illegal which his
advisers advised him not to. Either by talking him out of it. Or showing how
bad it was by refusing to do it. For which the were not fired. Instead he was convinced not to do it.
The bottom line is that he wanted to but didn’t. I do not
see that as either indictable or impeachable. Nor do I see any Republican
senator seeing it any other way.
Democrats want Mueller to testify. He has responded that he
will not do so. That he already expressed his opinions elaborately and clearly
in his 400 page report. He would add nothing to what he has already said. (To
which Democrats have responded that he will be subpoenaed if he refuses to
testify voluntarily. So much for all that respect they gave him before the
report was released.)
Democrats refuse to let up. They are going to pursue this to
the bitter end. But they will not succeed. Unless one define success as
assuring a second term for the President. A recent poll showed that the
majority of Americans do not consider the congressional investigation of the
President a top priority. (Don’t tell the media that. They love reporting on this story,)
Nor do the most Americans think congress should waste their
time doing so. They are interested in bread and butter issues. And there - the
President has a huge advantage. Despite the negative spin Democrats try
to place on all the positive statistics about the economy, figures don’t lie.
If I m not mistaken, economists (who are not motivated by
personally liberal politics) seem to agree that we are in the midst of one of
the longest periods of economic expansion in American history.
I realize that a lot of people think I have done a 180 on
the President. That I have become a big fan and supporter. The truth is that my
views of him as a person have not changed. In fact I have become even more
convinced that a man that behaves the way he does - does not deserve to occupy
the highest office in the land.
I still believe that many of the things he says
(especially his tweets) are disgusting and dishonor his high office. His
personal attacks are among the worst examples of that. I wish he wasn’t like
that. In this regard I would far more prefer someone like former President
Obama whose demeanor befitted the office. I can’t tell you how many times I
cringe at the things he says. There are way too many to count.
But one thing I was wrong about was that he would be a
disaster as President. That his way of doing things would hurt the economy and
ruin our place in the world. That the stock market would crash throwing us into a deeper depression than the crash of September 1929.That he would bring us to war or destroy important
relationships with out allies. That he might egg on a dictator like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
to actually lob a nuclear bomb our way.
And that his attitude of strong
support for Israel would go the expedient way of past Presidents and he would
look to the experienced experts in the State department to guide him along the
same path they guided other Presidents. That his lack of experience would be a
total disaster for the country.
For all of those reasons I chose to vote for his opponent.
As bad as I thought she was, I thought she was still better than a man like
Trump, who I saw as an embarrassment and a loose cannon. The day of the
election when it was determined that Trump won, I was shocked and dismayed.
But none of that came true. I was wrong and could not be
more pleased by most of what has happened over the past 2 years, both in
foreign and domestic policies.
The question remains who I will support in the next
election. It will be a difficult choice if anyone halfway decent runs against
him. On the other hand – if I look only at polices and not personalities, I may
actually hold my nose and vote for him. We shall see.
In the meantime I’m going to wait and see what happens over
the next two years. And make my decision then.
