The Asterisk Impeachment

The House of Representatives impeached President Trump but they failed to name an actual crime and instead went for Abuse of Power and added in a second charge of Obstruction of Congress.

Taking the second part first, it's true that the White House ordered witnesses not to cooperate with the impeachment. The justification was a combination of executive authority and an objection to the rules being used by the Democrats. This should have been referred to the courts to sort out. Rather than doing that the Democrats rushed the impeachment.

The first article list several allegations about the phone call and the president of Ukraine. None of the witnesses called during the hearings had first-hand knowledge of and wrong-doing. This should have been referred to a special prosecutor. But, again, the Democrats were in a rush and that would have taken months or years. What was not included was a list of law that President Trump broke. That's because Trump did nothing outright illegal. You have to assume his state of mind in order to infer criminal intent. Was the President actually trying to get a political advantage on one of the 24 Democratic candidates or had he seen the video of Biden on Fox and sincerely thought that it merited further investigation? The House Democrat pretend to know but they lack proof.

The whole impeachment was rushed and incomplete. The House Democrats have even admitted this. They are trying to get additional evidence and have suggested filing additional articles of impeachment.

The Democrats are also trying set the rules for the Senate trial. For Bill Clinton's Senate trial, there were no witnesses, just transcripts of testimony. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is insisting that this time there be a full trial with new witnesses. Again, this shows how rushed the House proceedings were. The House should have gone to court to get a definitive answer on how far executive privilege stretches.

It is obvious that the House Democrats do not care about following proper procedures. They already tried that with the Russian collusion investigation but the Mueller Report failed to find anything actionable. They are not willing to wait months or years for a second investigation that may also turn up nothing.

The Democrats know that there is no way they can force Donald Trump from office. That's no longer the goal of the impeachment.

Last Summer the lawyer representing Christine Blasey Ford when she testified prior to the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh admitted that Ford's real goal was not to stop Kavanaugh from being confirmed. The real goal was to put an asterisk on the justice. "He will always have an asterisk next to his name. When he takes a scalpel to Roe v. Wade, we will know who he is, we know his character, and we know what motivates him, and that is important; it is important that we know, and that is part of what motivated Christine."

That's all the Democrats are left with President Trump: putting an asterisk on his name. WaPo columnist and Trump-hater Eugene Robinson calls it the "Asterisk of shame".

It's possible that Nancy Pelosi is holding off transmitting the Articles of Impeachment in order to stretch out the process. She knows that the President will be acquitted as soon as the case goes to the Senate.

This whole thing is likely to backfire on the Democrats. Trump's approval rating has already improved and the Republicans have raised tens of millions in donations.

The Democrats have done as much damage as they can by voting to impeach the President. If they try to go any further then they risk putting an asterisk on themselves as the Congress that used impeachment for political gain.