There's a word for representatives who vote against the impeachment inquiry resolution: accomplices

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday October 31, 2019 · 4:50 AM PDT

2019/10/31 · 04:50

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-CA, speak during a press conference in the House Studio of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on October 2, 2019. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff speak during a press conference on October 2, 2019.

Today, Congress will approve a resolution formalizing an impeachment inquiry, demolishing the final Republican gripe about “due process unfairness.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made clear that this vote is not an impeachment of Donald J. Trump. It’s an inquiry at this stage.

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Given the confession of Donald Trump himself in the Ukraine affair, and the confession of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, together with corroboration of several witnesses whose sparkling records for honor and honesty seem to be uncontested, an inquiry is the least that had to be done. If this were anybody else, a grand jury would have sent up an indictment by now.

However much Pelosi and other elected Democrats didn’t want to be where we are today, it was inevitable because Trump’s pack of grifters finally pissed off the wrong people. A few of them took their oaths seriously, took a risk to stand against the powers that be, and squawked in the interests of the nation. Consequently, in Republicanville—which was considerably soothed by the unsatisfactory-to-Democrats release of the Mueller report and Robert Mueller’s dreadful appearance before Congress—clenched jaws and squinting is spreading even among some of Trump’s most avid previous defenders.

No matter what they say about unfairness and kangaroo courts, most Republicans in Congress know that these criticisms of the ongoing committee investigations are malarkey. They also know that Donald Trump has done what he is accused of having done, violating a part of the Constitution that the founders were insistent upon including to avoid exactly the kind of abuse of office that Trump and his pack have been engaged in all along. They know this because he admits it. His lawyer admits it. Credible witnesses confirm it. Breaking it down so even an oh-so-patriotic white nationalist can get it: Unless you think he’s lying again, Donald Trump admits that he endangered U.S. and Ukrainian interests for the purpose of personal and political gain.

Some people in the past—a whole lot of them Republicans—would have called such behavior treachery. Especially if the perp were a Democrat. They would have done all they could to get that person out of a position of power. What about now?

Most Republicans like to say on the campaign trail and every other chance they get that they have the nation’s best interests at heart, that they love the Constitution, and the two-party system, and all the military veterans who have fought to ensure the survival of our democratic institutions. Well, here’s their chance to put their votes where their mouths are.

The guy did what he said he did. What others said he did. Letting him off the hook without a formal impeachment inquiry does permanent damage to the rule of law, which right now is more than a little wobbly at the highest levels. House Republicans can show they are not just bloviating and really do believe in principle over partisanship and join in a bipartisan vote for the resolution. They don’t have to tell their constituents that they are “voting with the Democrats.” They can make it about solidarity with the rule of law, with an affirmative reading of the nation’s founding document.

I’ve previously wondered if, somehow, some way, around 50 or so Republicans could pry themselves free of the idea that this is just an unimportant procedural vote for which they should stick with the party. Just 50 Republicans willing to show that they are neither corrupt nor obedient to those who are. Because, make no mistake about it, anyone who votes against an impeachment inquiry is an accomplice to the undermining of democratic rule itself. We’ve had more than enough of that in our history already.

Forty Republicans? Fifteen? Five?

(For the record, Democrats who don’t vote for the inquiry are accomplices too.)

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