THis Week in Congress

[JackLuis]

DOJ files brief arguing against House impeachment probe

Bill Bars the way!

New York Democrat pens op-ed on why he opposes impeaching Trump

Dems can't Impeach and chew gum a the same time, so how are they going to save his seat at the grifting table?

Nadler: Impeachment inquiry a 'made-up term' but it's essentially 'what we are doing'

Call it what you will, but Jerrold is getting his 15 minutes!


Nadler: Trump impeachment needed 'to vindicate the Constitution'

"Personally, I think the president ought to be impeached," Nadler told WNYC's Brian Lehrer.

He acknowledged that impeachment is unlikely to lead to Trump's removal, given widespread opposition from Republicans in the Senate. But he argued it is necessary to establish a standard for future presidents.

"Impeachment is imperative not because he's going to be removed from office. The Senate won't do that. But because we have to vindicate the Constitution," Nadler said.

"We have to show that this kind of behavior — trashing the Constitution, trashing all the norms which guarantee democratic government, aggrandizing power to the presidency and destroying the separation of powers and thereby leading the president to become more and more of a tyrant cannot be tolerated. And it cannot be normalized," Nadler said.

"We have to make sure the next president or the one after him or her knows there's a real penalty to be paid. That's why the impeachment is necessary, even if we cannot get a vote in the Senate, in my opinion."

Well get on with it Jerrold!

 

[JackLuis]

Pelosi wanted Corey Lewandowski held in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions: report

According to the Washington Post, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought top aide to President Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski, refused to answer questions about his conversation with the president.

According to Lewandowski, the White House Counsel told him not to answer those questions. The problem is that Lewandowski never worked for the White House; he worked for the Trump campaign. So, personal conversations for the purposes of national security are not part of Lewandowski’s life.

In a conversation with a group of lawmakers Wednesday, Pelosi said Lewandowski should have been held in contempt “right then and there” when he refused to answer questions and spoke over members asking him questions.

So, why wait any longer? Thursdays are great for Contempability.

 

[jaF0]

Did the Critters do something right for a change?

House Passes Bill Banning Mandatory Arbitration Clauses

The House of Representatives approved a bill Friday that would bar clauses in contracts that force people to go into arbitration if they raise employment, consumer, antitrust or civil rights claims against companies.



If it survives Moscow Mitch and Putin's Puppet, would it work, or be a double edged sword?

 

[JackLuis]

Nancy Pelosi faces serious challenges — but she’s failed miserably in two key ways

As I wrote earlier this week, with its muddled messaging on impeachment, the House Democratic leadership may have figured out a way of both demoralizing the Democratic base and firing up Trump’s supporters. It’s a mess.

That’s the state of play on September 19, 2019. The Dem caucus is hopelessly divided, public opinion is against those who want to impeach a lawless president* and it’s unlikely that another Speaker could magically change these facts at present.

Having said all of that, Pelosi and her leadership team have failed, badly, in two important ways, and those failures have given Trump a sense of impunity and now risk undermining the separation of powers on which our Constitutional system rests.

So far, the paltry results of the Democrats’ oversight activities have been demoralizing. If Nancy Pelosi shares the sense of urgency felt by most rank-and-file Dems, especially people of color and other historically marginalized groups, she’s failed to show it. And as fair as we might be in looking at the big picture, that’s why her leadership under Trump has been an abject failure.

Deamonrats in disarray!

 

[JackLuis]

Dems in Congress can publicly punish Trump — and Mitch McConnell would be powerless to stop them

But as Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty noted in a new op-ed, there is another method Democrats can use to punish Trump on the House floor — and unlike impeachment, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would have no say over it whatsoever: a formal censure.

“None of this would end the argument over impeachment, but it would prove to the American people that at least part of their government sets a higher standard of behavior than our current president does,” concluded Tumulty. “It also, finally, would force Republicans to answer a question that they have been dodging: Is there anything this president does that you will not tolerate?”

Or they could not wait six months before pressing the courts to help them enforce the law.

 

[JackLuis]

Trump judicial picks face rare GOP opposition

Lumpy has problems with GOP? Are his ( Moscow Mitche's?) picks too batshit for the real Republicans?

 

[JackLuis]

Pelosi: Whistleblower complaint 'must be addressed immediately'

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the whistleblower complaint over President Trump’s call with a foreign leader “must be addressed immediately.”

“This violation is about our national security. The Inspector General determined that the matter is ‘urgent’ and therefore we face an emergency that must be addressed immediately,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to members of Congress released Sunday.

Nancy's pissed! We don't really know if Trumpski was "Person #1" or what he did, but we know that the DNI has broken the law and that the DOJ is complicit, so it must be Trumpski's fault!

 

[KeithD]

Pelosi: Whistleblower complaint 'must be addressed immediately'



Nancy's pissed! We don't really know if Trumpski was "Person #1" or what he did, but we know that the DNI has broken the law and that the DOJ is complicit, so it must be Trumpski's fault!

Yes, we do know that Trump was "Person #1." That already was legally established in the Cohen trial. We've known he should be in a jail cell as well as Cohen from even before that.

Pelosi is doing the same as the Republicans--putting party over country. Trump's multidimensional corruption, criminality, and treason is right out there in the open. Pelosi needs to stop putting party before country and do what's right for the preservation of the system. Anyone who votes with him then needs to be identified and pursued relentlessly in the next election they stand for--if the country is still here then.

 

[JackLuis]

Pelosi is doing the same as the Republicans--putting party over country. Trump's multidimensional corruption, criminality, and treason is right out there in the open. Pelosi needs to stop putting party before country and do what's right for the preservation of the system. Anyone who votes with him then needs to be identified and pursued relentlessly in the next election they stand for--if the country is still here then.

SO your idea is the "Burn ALL the Rethuglicuts to the ground?" Or will you also include the Demonrats that resist?

 

[KeithD]

SO your idea is the "Burn ALL the Rethuglicuts to the ground?" Or will you also include the Demonrats that resist?

Sure. Anyone who votes against impeachment and removal. That would include your not-a-Democrat idol, Bernie Sanders, if he doesn't vote for removal (which I presume he would unless he takes a notion, as usual, just to talk pie-in-the-sky and not actually do anything).

 

[phrodeau]

(edited)

What has the Democratic Party accomplished in the House of Representatives since they took over?

Look up "Senate graveyard." The House has passed over 150 bills that the Senate hasn't taken action on.

 

[jaF0]

Look up "Senate graveyard." The House has passed over 150 bills that Moscow Mitch has refused to take action on.

Fixed yer post.

 

[KeithD]

Look up "Senate graveyard." The House has passed over 150 bills that the Senate hasn't taken action on.

I laugh when the Trumpettes bring up the "what has the Democratic House been doing?" It's been busy passing legislation that the Republican Senate won't take up. These stupid Trumpettes won't do any actual research before they spew their lies. What a bunch of losers.

 

[JackLuis]

Pelosi Announces Formal Impeachment Inquiry Against Trump

OMG, OMG Nancy grew a pair!

The dam has broken.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi officially launched impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump on Tuesday afternoon in one of the most consequential moments of the Trump presidency.

“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the President’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” Pelosi said. “Therefore, today I’m announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry.”

The House speaker said she had directed the chairs of the House Judiciary, Ways and Means, Financial Services, Oversight, Foreign Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs committees to conduct the impeachment inquiries per each committee’s purview.

Senate Unanimously Votes For Resolution Demanding Whistleblower Complaint

The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) resolution calling on the Trump administration to hand over a whistleblower’s complaint about President Donald Trump to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) put the resolution for a vote after Schumer requested a vote via unanimous consent.

Even Moscow Mitch is wanting to uphold the law, now!

 

[jaF0]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted for a second time to terminate the national emergency on the southern border that President Donald Trump declared in February, a measure that almost certainly would face a veto if it reaches Trump's desk.

Trump, with his very first veto, struck down a similar measure that had cleared both the House and Senate in March. Congress was unable to muster the votes to override that veto.

The Senate vote to approve the resolution was 54-41.

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/arti...in-to-end-trumps-border-emergency-declaration

 

[JackLuis]

Impeachment at last — but will the Democrats screw it up?

Well, it finally happened. After months of handwringing, the Democrats finally took the step their most committed activists have been clamoring for since November of 2018. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that Congress will launch an official impeachment investigation. As of this writing, 203 Democrats are now on the record in support of an inquiry. On Monday morning, that number stood at 134.

Write, call or e-mail your congress critters, Voters hold the balance of power!

 

[KeithD]

Congress is supposed to go into a two-week recess on Friday. Will the House Democrats blow the momentum and keep the recess?

 

[jaF0]

Will they be able to muster up enough votes to override the 'Emergency/No Emergency' veto this time?

 

[jaF0]

"There are now 218 members of Congress backing either an impeachment inquiry or the impeachment of President Donald Trump, both NBC News and Politico reported.

This is a significant threshold given it's the number of votes that would be necessary to impeach Trump in the House (a simple majority out of the 435 members). If that occurred a public trial would then take place in the Senate, which would be presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate would ultimately be necessary to convict Trump and remove him from office.

The 218 House members who support an impeachment action on some level are all Democrats except for Rep. Justin Amash, who's an independent from Michigan."
https://www.businessinsider.com/maj...upports-impeachment-inquiry-into-trump-2019-9

That's a problem. I don't like partisanship.

 

[JackLuis]

"There are now 218 members of Congress backing either an impeachment inquiry or the impeachment of President Donald Trump, both NBC News and Politico reported.

This is a significant threshold given it's the number of votes that would be necessary to impeach Trump in the House (a simple majority out of the 435 members). If that occurred a public trial would then take place in the Senate, which would be presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate would ultimately be necessary to convict Trump and remove him from office.

The 218 House members who support an impeachment action on some level are all Democrats except for Rep. Justin Amash, who's an independent from Michigan."
https://www.businessinsider.com/maj...upports-impeachment-inquiry-into-trump-2019-9

That's a problem. I don't like partisanship.

I'm sure John Roberts wouldn't hold Trump accountable for his trashing of Roberts last spring, would he?

 

[JackLuis]

Senators fret over prospect of Trump trial

The launching of a House impeachment inquiry against President Trump is raising the prospect of a Senate trial — unnerving senators already anxious about an election-year battle where the Senate majority could be up for grabs.

The worries cut both ways for Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.

Senators in both parties predict impeachment will further polarize the electorate, a troubling development for Republicans running in states won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race such as Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Yet for GOP candidates running in states where Trump has a higher approval rating, such as Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.), Joni Ernst (Iowa) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.), the polarized electorate could help drive Republicans to the polls.

If Nancy keeps pushing for Impeachment, it could change the balance of power in the Senate as people revolt against Rethuglicunts!

 

[JackLuis]

GOP senator on whistleblower complaint: 'There's obviously lots that's very troubling there'

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Wednesday that a whistleblower complaint concerning a call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky contained “lots that’s very troubling,” warning his GOP colleagues not to dismiss it.

“Republicans ought not to be rushing to circle the wagons to say there’s no there there when there’s obviously lots that’s very troubling there,” Sasse said after reviewing the complaint, according to an NBC News reporter. “The administration ought not be attacking the whistleblower as some talking points suggest they plan to do.”

However, Sasse also castigated the media and House Democrats, who have announced an impeachment inquiry based on the whistleblower complaint, saying, “Democrats ought not to be using the word impeach before they have the whistleblower complaint or before they read any of the transcript.”

However, now that the Trumped up transcript and the WB complaint has been publicly released, it seems Nancy was just forced to Impeach!

 

[JackLuis]

Democrats call for House leadership to cancel recess and focus on impeachment

An increasing number of Democrats are calling on House leadership to cancel recess to allow Congress to move full steam ahead on the impeachment inquiry.

Members of the lower chamber are scheduled to fly out for a two-week break following votes on Friday, but a growing number of progressive members and Democratic presidential candidates argue now is not the time to leave Washington.

“Congress is about to leave for a two-week recess — we should not do that. We need to stay in Washington to work for the American people,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), first vice-chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, said in a video posted to social media.

Maybe cut it to a week so the members can hold Town Halls to get a sense of how pissed off their constituents are? Then back to Congress to slap subpoenas on all the Retrthugllicans who have stone walled? And censurers for them if they continue, or Contempt of Congress and arrest by the House Sgt at Arms!

 

[JackLuis]

Pelosi: DNI 'broke the law' in withholding whistleblower complaint

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday went after President Trump's head of national intelligence, saying the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire "broke the law" in withholding a whistleblower complaint from Congress.

"What the DNI did was broke the law. The law is very clear: The DNI 'shall' convey the complaint to the Intelligence committees — not the whole Congress — to the Intelligence committees," Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol.

Pelosi, who was a member of the House Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the DNI position was created, said the law was "carefully balanced to protect our intelligence and to protect the whistleblower."

"So he has to convey it," she said.

What about the IRS Head, AG and Sec Treasury who obstructed the law on the Tax returns?

Who will enforce the law? An Executive who also breaks the law by lack of enforcement?

 

[JackLuis]

AOC demands Republicans read the whistleblower report on Trump — or resign from Congress

“There is almost no excuse for a member of Congress to have not read the whistleblower report by now,” she said. “It’s a few pages.”

“This is literally our jobs,” noted the first-term member, who is also known as AOC.

“If you don’t have the commitment to be here and do the work, cut your fancy fundraisers and make the time, or quit,” Ocasio-Cortez suggested.