Is Nancy’s refusal to send the impeachment to the Senate a stalling tactic to allow the Democrats and media time to badger and shame Republican Senators into siding with Chuck Schumer?
Yesterday while I was waiting an eternity for the vet to finish working on my dog, I got to thinking about Nancy’s scheme to withhold the articles of impeachment from the Senate. What else was I going to do? I was sitting alone in the exam room with a lot of time on my hands.
And I started to wonder if perhaps one of the reasons Nancy is playing this card is to give time to the media and well-funded Leftist groups to hound and harass Senate Republicans in some twisted attempt to influence the jury.
And by “influence the jury,” I mean exerting pressure and/or threats against Republican Senators in order to coerce them into doing the bidding of the Democrats.
Sure, the Republicans are unified now. And a swift trial would prevent the Democrats (and the media) to slowly chip away at that unified front.
Is Nancy’s objective in delaying to give Leftists more time?
I don’t know if you’ve read Sharyl Attkisson’s outstanding book The Smear. But in the first chapter, Attkisson describes in detail how during the Bill Clinton impeachment, Larry Flynt bought a full-page ad in the Washington Post soliciting dirt on Republican politicians.
From The Smear:
Two thousand calls flooded in. Hustler editor Allan MacDonell told the Post in an article published January 11, 1999, “every voicemail that the calls were routed to was full, and every time we took down the numbers and deleted the messages, the system would immediately fill up again.
Flynt solicited photos, home video, “taped phone conversations and answering machine messages, dinner and drink receipts, phone bills, witnesses, divorce papers, angry spouses.” Nothing was off-limits. He even hired an established investigative firm to knock on doors and check out leads. His private eyes were said to be ex-FBI and -CIA. Word got around. A nervous chill fell over the U.S. capital.
The mere threat of a smear proved enough to take down one major figure calling for Clinton’s impeachment: House Speaker–designate Bob Livingston, a Republican from Louisiana. Flynt claimed he’d identified four women who’d been involved with Livingston. The day of Clinton’s House impeachment vote, Livingston abruptly resigned.
[snip]
Flynt’s targets at the time weren’t just sitting politicians. Hustler editor MacDonell told reporters the hit list included pundits “who go on TV and keep attacking Clinton.” It was a warning shot across the bow. Speak out against the president and you’ll pay the price. Guilty-minded commentators began self-censoring. Suddenly some of the television analysts weren’t so hard on Clinton. In fact, some of them switched to defending him. In February 1999, the Republican-majority Senate voted to acquit Clinton.
So I can’t help but wonder if outside groups (and the media) advised Nancy Pelosi to hang on to the impeachment articles long enough to allow time for them to influence the jury as Flynt did in 1999. Though, maybe not in the same slimy way.
It didn’t escape my notice that in the first 24 hours after Nancy Pelosi sent the House home without moving forward on impeachment, we got an opinion piece from Christianity Today demanding the Senate convict and a Washington Post op-ed from former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake demanding his former Republican colleagues stand up to Trump.
Coincidence?
I don’t think so.
These people are scheming, plotting cretins.
Nothing they do is coincidence.
Thanks to Nancy’s delay, these guys are now afforded time to hound and pester and guilt Republican Senators into bending to the will of the Democrats in Congress.
And they have reason to think it will work, don’t they?
It worked in the Clinton impeachment after all.
Besides, the Democrats and the media are used to Republicans surrendering under pressure. Flake himself is famous for bending over for the Democrats. During the Kavanaugh circus, all it took was two harpies screaming at him in an elevator and that guy folded like a bad poker hand.
I’ve said countless times that the Democrats’ schemes depend on a subservient Republican party. They rely on their Republican colleagues to collapse like a badly-made soufflé at the first sign of pressure.
As Liz Shield put it at American Greatness, GOP Senators are known to be “like Ken dolls, smooth between the legs.”
Senate Republicans were already saying the House impeachment articles would be swiftly dismissed.
How can the Democrats and the media pick away at Republican support when they don’t have the time?
Enter Nancy Pelosi and her scheme to withhold the impeachment articles.
And presto! Time provided.
And before you can say “Shampeachment,” Operation Influence the Jury kicked into gear.
That can’t be a coincidence.
Meanwhile, outside groups are urging their ResistanceLOL shock troops to target Republican Senators demanding they vote to remove Trump from office.
Dem Senators are joining in — urging their Republican colleagues to show “courage.”
I think the objective is two-fold. First, they will hound GOP Senators in hopes that there will be Republican support for Chuck Schumer’s silly demands for a drawn-out trial with new witnesses.
The second objective is to force some Republicans to cave to pressure and vote to convict. Sure, they know they’ll never get twenty. But the goal isn’t to actually remove the President; the goal is to fracture the Republicans’ unity. They want that coveted “bi-partisan” support for conviction.
And because the media is eager to get rid of President Trump, they will happily play along.
Already they’re flogging Flake’s op-ed while praising him for his courage. They’re gushing with star-struck delight at Christianity
It’s all an attempt to influence the jury.
The Left can spot weakness a mile away. And their hope is to find those Ken dolls still in the Senate who can be bullied and shamed into siding with the Democrats.
They failed to get House Republicans to budge. But I’m sure the thinking is that maybe with enough time they can achieve a better outcome in the Senate.
Had Nancy acted immediately, Trump probably would have been acquitted before Christmas.
But she didn’t. Instead, she bought the Left time to try and influence the jury.
Now, I admit that this is all conjecture on my part. But something about it just feels right.
The question is, will this attempt to influence the jury be as successful as what Larry Flynt did twenty years ago?
I have my doubts.
First of all, it isn’t so much a smear campaign (yet) as a guilt campaign. They’re trying to hector and bully Senate Republicans in much the same way they did during the Kavanaugh confirmation. But despite wobbly Jeff Flake, the Republicans held fast during the Kavanaugh circus. And something tells me they will this time too.
Except for maybe Murkowski, Collins and Romney, Republican Senators — thanks in large part to the Kavanaugh ordeal — are starting to recognize the Left’s modus operandi. And they are less likely to play along.
But that doesn’t mean the Democrats and the media won’t give it the old college try.
Fact is, they have so few weapons in their arsenal, it doesn’t surprise me that they’re going back to that same tactics they used against Republicans during the Kavanaugh hearings. Plus, they’re insane. And the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
They will still try to zero in on those Republicans they see as most vulnerable and weak.
In fact, they’ve already started.
Twenty-four hours after the House impeached, the Washington Post published an op-ed titled “This is Mitt Romney’s moment” by Fusion GPS’s favorite WaPo columnist David Ignatius.
History is knocking on Romney’s door. This is his moment to step away from a president who holds him in contempt and to speak for principle — by insisting that the Senate conduct an actual trial and weigh the House’s allegations that Trump abused power and obstructed Congress. This simple stand for an impartial trial (if backed by several more brave Republicans) would restore sanity to this process.
Instead of the Flynt route of smearing, their goal is to accuse Republicans of lacking courage unless they conform to the Democrats’ demands. To them, “bravery” means doing the Democrat Party’s bidding.
None of this would be possible had Nancy Pelosi immediately transmitted the impeachment articles to the Senate.
But thanks to her, Operation Influence the Jury has all the time in the world to maneuver.
Which makes me think that was the plan all along.