Pelosi Ducks an Impeachment Vote

[Right_in_Virginia]

Pelosi Ducks an Impeachment Vote
The full House authorized inquiries for Nixon and Clinton. Why not for Trump?
Wall Street Journal, Sep 26, 2019, The Editorial Board

Democrats and a cheerleading press corps are accelerating their drive to impeach President Trump, with the release Thursday of the whistleblower complaint and a harangue of the acting director of national intelligence. Not to spoil the fun, but when is the House going to hold a roll call vote to authorize this effort to oust an elected President?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday she now supports an “official” inquiry, but nothing changed other than the political momentum for impeachment. The same committees investigating all things Trump are doing what they were doing before her statement. Mrs. Pelosi seems to think something is “official” merely because she deems it so.

This isn’t how impeachment worked against Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. In those cases the full House voted to authorize the Judiciary Committee to investigate if impeachment was warranted.

On Feb. 4, 1974, Democratic House leaders introduced H.Res. 803 authorizing Judiciary “to investigate fully and completely whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to impeach President Richard M. Nixon,” according to the Congress.gov summary. The vote in favor was 410-4. The bipartisan support gave the inquiry more than partisan legitimacy, and six months later Nixon resigned after tapes were released finding he had ordered the coverup of the Watergate break-in.

[...]

Despite her Tuesday declaration, Mrs. Pelosi has held no such vote and has signaled no intention to hold one. There is no constitutional obligation to hold such an authorizing vote. But it’s telling that Mrs. Pelosi doesn’t want to put her Members on record.

The issue here is political accountability. Impeaching a President means nullifying the results of a presidential election, which is the core act of American democratic legitimacy. If Democrats are going to do this, they have an obligation to stand up and be counted.


More:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/pelosi-ducks-an-impeachment-vote-11569540242

[verga]

She knows that it will not end well for her of the Dems.

[Cyber Liberty]

So she wants to have her cake and eat it too.  Color me surprised.

[sneakypete]

She knows that it will not end well for her of the Dems.

@verga

Does anyone really know how this clueless bimbo became Majority Leader? Granted,the typical Dim has the reasoning ability of a brick,but surely she can't be the smartest one?

[Cyber Liberty]

@verga

Does anyone really know how this clueless bimbo became Majority Leader? Granted,the typical Dim has the reasoning ability of a brick,but surely she can't be the smartest one?

Seniority, I assume.  The Peder Principle is alive and well in DeeCee.

[Right_in_Virginia]

So she wants to have her cake and eat it too.  Color me surprised.

Bingo!   

[Cyber Liberty]

Bingo!   

Bongo!   

[verga]

@verga

Does anyone really know how this clueless bimbo became Majority Leader? Granted,the typical Dim has the reasoning ability of a brick,but surely she can't be the smartest one?

@sneakypete usually it is based on Seniority, but dipstick Ryan kind of disproved that.