Impeachment Is a Bridge Too Far – Why Would the Democrats Risk It?

In WWII the Allies came up with a bold plan to shorten the war by using paratrooper to seize bridges crossing the Rhine River. They dubbed the plan Operation Market Garden. Sadly, they miscalculated and the paratroopers who seized the last bridge couldn’t hold out until reinforcements arrived. Operation Market Garden failed. Of the 10,000 airborne troops dropped behind German lines, only 2000 returned.

Now the Democrats appear to be launching their own version of Market Garden by opening a so-called impeachment inquiry in the House against President Trump for abuse of power. One has to wonder why. Unlike the real Operation Market Garden, which came close to succeeding, the Democrat’s effort will absolutely fail if their real objective is to remove President Trump from office. They certainly must know that even if they do have enough votes in the House to impeach the President there is no way two-thirds of the Republican-controlled Senate will vote to convict him. In truth, the Democrat’s call for an “official” impeachment inquiry is a sham. Pelosi is orchestrating political theater. She didn’t call for a floor vote of the whole House to determine if Trump should be impeached. What we see is a kangaroo court of Democrat committees working to discredit President Trump once again. It’s nothing more than presidential harassment.

So why are Democrats even claiming they want impeachment inquiries? If you believe Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats when they say that impeachment is just the right thing to do, I’ve got beachfront property in South Dakota you might want to buy. So, since they know they can’t succeed in removing President Trump from of office the only plausible explanation for pushing impeachment inquiries is that they hope to benefit politically. They must believe the stain of these inquiries will so tarnish President Trump that voters will overlook the economy and vote him out of office. But that’s not a sure thing, so why take the risk when polls show most of the leading Democrat contenders already winning against him?

Perhaps the Democrats don’t trust the public polls? Maybe their private polling shows something different? Or maybe Pelosi believes she had to promise she’d move toward impeachment to placate the radical left-wing of her party. For whatever reason Speaker Pelosi hasn’t called for a full House vote to start an official impeachment inquiry. This lets her deny House Republicans the subpoena powers they would have if there was a formal impeachment inquiry, and let her protect those 31Democrat House members from districts that voted for Trump in 2016.

This is their bridge too far. For starters at the very least Trump’s base is going to unify behind him and they will certainly be more motivated to vote in 2020. It also doesn’t help their case that the most strident calls for impeachment come from the far left of the Democrat Party that many Americans view with suspicion. They aren’t nicknamed the “Loony Left” for nothing. To add to that the public is increasingly tired of the never-ending investigations while nothing else is getting done. For two and a half years the Democrats claimed there was collusion with Russia, they promoted the Stormy Daniels scandal, and the Cohen conviction for campaign finance violations scandal, and leveled charges of racism, and corruption, all of which led nowhere. Now the Democrats are hoping the abuse of power allegation will finally impact Trump enough to insure he won’t be reelected.

After the Mueller investigation flopped many Americans consider all these other investigations by the Democrats as an unfair piling on. The latest abuse of power charges which led to the ballyhooed impeachment inquiries originated with a whistleblower complaint. The problem is the whistleblower had to rely on second and third-hand evidence, also known as hearsay, something that would not be admitted in a court of law. Plus, it turns out this whistleblower took his or her complaint to Judiciary Chairmen, Adam Schiff almost a month before the complaint was filed which makes it look like he or she may have gotten help with the complaint. Congressman Schiff led the Russian collusion charge claiming concrete evidence of collusion that he never produced. That makes this abuse of power charges look like more of the same from an anti-Trump zealot. It doesn’t help that the IG has stated the whistleblower has a political bias.

Trump released a transcript of the Ukrainian phone call. In it there was no obvious quid pro quo. In contrast, we have then Vice-President Biden on tape saying, “I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor [looking into corruption involving Biden’s son.] is not fired, you’re not getting the money.” Further, the Democrats have the problem in that it certainly appears something fishy was going on with Biden’s son. How does someone like Hunter Biden get paid $50,000 a month by a Ukrainian oil company when he had no background in the field? Why would the Chinese trust him with $1.5 billion to invest when he likewise had no background in that field, either? By pushing this impeachment inquiry the Democrats are going to find themselves like the paratroopers at the bridge in Arnhem without support because the truth just isn’t on their side.