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Many rank-and-file Democrats along with those in leadership have had enough piddling around. Following the refusal of former White House counsel Don McGahn to comply with a congressional subpoena, the dam seems to have broken, with more Democrats publicly expressing a desire to initiate impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
"We are now at the point where we must begin an impeachment inquiry. I don't say that lightly," Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, a member of the Judiciary Committee, tweeted early Tuesday morning. "We've taken every step we can w/subpoenas and witnesses. Trump obstructs everything. A president who thinks he's king, accountable to nobody & ,above the law is absolutely unacceptable."
Jayapal is among at least a half a dozen Democrats on the Judiciary panel who have been forcefully articulating the need to move to impeachment hearings. Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Val Demings of Florida, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Ted Lieu of California have all expressed similar views, even as Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler of New York has expressed doubt about impeachment being the "best answer" for the constitutional crisis the nation is confronting. The difference between Monday and Tuesday is the fact that conflict within the Democratic caucus has gone fully public after a series of meetings late Monday in which Democratic leaders pushed Pelosi on impeachment.
"The logic may be inescapable," Rep. Raskin told CNN Tuesday morning.
In fact, the logic now appears to be working against Democratic leaders who have been trying to rein in their caucus. When Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland was asked about the Democratic divide Tuesday morning, he responded, "We are confronting what might well be the largest, broadest cover up of any administration in history.”
How a House leader could make such a dire observation about a sitting president and yet fail to see the necessity of initiating of impeachment proceedings is inexplicable.
Pelosi has been both desperately and understandably trying to keep her caucus focused on passing legislation, such as fixes to health care, that deliver on Democrats' 2018 promises to voters. The Washington Post reports that Pelosi "bemoaned" the fact that news of House investigations was overshadowing, for instance, passage of the pro-LGBTQ Equality Act last week.
But this may be a case where the narrative is simply too powerful and pressing to control, especially when Trump is so clearly making a bad-faith attempt to subvert both congressional investigators and the U.S. Constitution itself.
In fact, Pelosi has said that Democrats both can't impeach for political reasons, and they can't fail to impeach for political reasons. Her caucus is now putting her on notice that she's on the wrong side of the latter part of that equation. She is clearly avoiding impeachment for political reasons that may have once had solid footing when the prospect of holding hearings was still viable. It’s not anymore. Now, the profoundly apolitical thing to do is to impeach out of a constitutional obligation, despite the fact that it's not politically popular.