Yesterday, Kochbusters published a diary concerning comments made by certain anonymous Senate aides about how Trump’s “civil war” tweet was causing Republican Senators a certain amount of distress, to the point where some of these Senators might even vote for Trump’s removal if it came to that. Call me skeptical, but given that reaction by GOP Senators over the course of the Trump White House occupancy has ranged from the mildest of criticism (resulting in political banishment) to craven obsequience, I really can’t imagine more than two or three such Senators voting to remove Trump after impeachment. Given the mood and character of their base, doing so would be political suicide, and we all know how much these paragons of principle want to hang on to their jobs.
Nonetheless, included in this diary was a tweet posted by Rick Wilson:
Inspired by this, I decided to sent a constituent e-mail to my own GOP US Senator,
Pat Toomey. Toomey is a fairly predictable weasel, but he’s a Republican Senator elected from a swing state that has, except for 2016, voted for the Democrat in every presidential election since 1992, and we’re looking to spring back to form in 2020. He’s gotta be at least a little concerned about holding on to his job in what might otherwise be a hostile electoral climate in 2022.
E-mail is now really the only way he can be contacted anymore. Nobody actually answers the phone either in his Washington office, or in his local offices around the state. E-mail is less than ideal, but I have found that he (actually, his staff, of course) responds to them. I may not like the response, and it often completely ignores the point I made in my message, but nonetheless, somebody wrote back.
Unfortunately, I did not have the presence of mind to actually copy my message before sending it via the constituent webpage, and once it’s gone, you can’t see what you wrote anymore, but I will try my best to recreate what I wrote. (In fact, I can’t vouch for how close to the original it is, but the points raised are the same ones.)
Dear Senator Toomey,
This past Sunday, the President tweeted a quote from Pastor Robert Jeffress:
“...if the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they never will be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country can never heal.”
The President of the United States is raising the threat of civil war, possibly inciting his supporters to violence. Is this sort of behavior that is acceptable in the head of state of the most powerful nation in the world, to encourage the start of a civil war within that nation’s borders? And to what end? Just to save his presidency?
Pursuing a whistleblower’s report from a member of the intelligence services, the House has initiated an impeachment investigation centered on the evidence that the President extorted Ukraine by withholding defense aid in order to induce that country to provide dirt on Trump’s domestic political rivals. If this allegation is true, it is an egregious abuse of power by the President. The White House provided Congress with an edited readout of the telephone conversation between the presidents of the two countries, which corroborates the whistleblower’s account, despite the President’s protestations to the contrary. Further, the whistleblower revealed that the record of this conversation, as well as conversations with other foreign leaders, were being kept on a super-secret server, an extraordinary practice that does not conform to that of previous administrations and which is not normally warranted.
The President has declared that the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, has committed treason for pursuing an investigation of these actions, and for paraphrasing the readout of the conversation, rather than reading it word-for-word. The President has threatened to reveal the identity of the whistleblower, putting the life of the whistleblower in potential danger. The President has called those on his staff who served as sources for the whistleblower “spies” and has insinuated threats of violence toward them. The President is in the habit if threatening individual members of the public with violence.
Furthermore, members of the President’s cabinet, as well as his personal lawyer, are implicated in this extortion. In addition, members of the President’s cabinet, including the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, have attempted to enlist the leaders of other nations to discredit the Mueller report. The chief law enforcement officer in the United States, the Attorney General, seeks to undermine the law enforcement agency he oversees, the FBI. All of this activity is in the interest of rejecting the fact that Russia influenced the outcome of the 2016 election, a fact understood as true by every US intelligence agency. This campaign is damaging the credibility of long-standing government institutions in the eyes of the American public, as well as causing damage to national security.
So, Senator Toomey, the President has advocated civil war in the event that he is removed from office by impeachment, a process delineated within the Constitution itself. Do you support this notion from the President, of a civil war, or do you condemn it?
Sincerely,
etc
If you live in a swing state with a Republican Senator, as I do, you might want to send a message like this one to him/her. You’re welcome to use as much or as little of the content of the message above as you like. Indeed, you could send it to any Republican Senator you like. I’m sure it will not be effective in the deep red states of the west and the south, but hopefully, they will find it annoying, at least.
We will get to the evening’s comments below the fold, but first, here’s a message from our sponsor:
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Top Comments (October 2, 2019):
From belinda ridgewood:
In Mark Sumner's front page diary about Trump's use of the secret server coming back to bite him, dopper0189 paraphrases Donne to hilarious effect.
Highlighted by Jessica Sutherland:
This comment by Crazycab214 in Sutherland’s recommended post on the verdict in the Botham Jean murder trial.
Highlighted by potteryfan:
This comment by dinotrac in Kerry Eleveld’s front page post contrasting the language of House leadership with the language of Trump’s tweets.
Top Mojo (October 1, 2019):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
Top Photos (October 1, 2019):
Thanks to jotter!