“Dems see Trump’s alleged self-dealing as new path to impeachment” says the headline in the Politico article. The gist of the article is summed up in the subtitle “Lawmakers argue Trump's alleged corruption is easier for the public to understand than 'arcane terms' like obstruction of justice.”
Richard Nixon famously said “I am not a crook” in In an hour-long televised question-and-answer session with 400 Associated Press managing editors:
Nov. 17, 1973 -- Declaring that “I am not a crook,” President Nixon vigorously defended his record in the Watergate case tonight and said he had never profited from his public service.
“I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life I have never obstructed justice,” Mr. Nixon said.
“People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.” (Washington Post)
Strictly defined, Nixon was telling the truth. He was not a crook. He earned every cent he ever made, and apparently he earning his money honestly. Of course was a liar. And he certainly obstructed justice.
Trump is a liar, he engaged in obstruction of justice, he committed campaign-finance crimes and abused the power of the presidency, and he also probably engaged in a conspiracy, a quid pro quo, with Putin either to build a hotel in Russia, or to keep revelations from the Steele dossier secret, or both, in trade for eliminating sanctions.
We all had high hope that the revelations in the Mueller report would be a blueprint for impeachment. Thanks in part to William Barr’s establishing the narrative with an interpretation worthy of a sleazy mob defense attorney defending his client the Mueller report was a dud.
Is it possible that everything that would have Republicans frothing at the mouth to impeach a Democratic president will go for naught? Or is the fact that Trump was so greedy that he blatantly defied the emoluments clause of the United States Constitution to enrich his personal coffers could be the foreshock that leads to the category 9 megathrust earthquake?
This is what Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and Democratic leadership said:
This “I think there’s no question that people tend to react more strongly to direct evidence of corruption and financial gain and using the presidency for your own financial benefit. What they will learn about the obstruction of justice — coupled with the president’s corruption — taken together are going to be sufficient for the American people to be persuaded that we should move forward with impeachment.”. Politico
Politico says that “to Republicans, the rhetorical reset is a sign that Democrats are grasping for a strategy to justify potential impeachment when their earlier attempts failed to gain momentum.” It is true enough that the Democrats attempts to move the needle among enough members of Congress and the public to justify impeachment. The momentum, if there ever was any, has stalled.
Is it possible that the tsunami of news about how blatant and unrestrained, and downright petty in some cases, Trump’s greed has been will turn the tide on sentiment about Trump needing to be impeached?
When a tsunami approaches, the tide first recedes leaving dying fish thrashing about, and then the the sea builds into a huge wall of water which returns at up to 500 mph wiping out everything in its path. (Wikipedia) I can see Trump in his ignorance about the weather driving out on his golf cart to pick up the fish. This happened in 1946 in Hawaii:
The tsunami that pounded the northeastern shores of the Big Island on April 1, 1946 was the cruelest April Fool’s trick that Mother Nature could have played. In a matter of moments, more than 1,300 homes were swept away, and 159 people were killed.
Tuck Wah Lee was a 27-year old stevedore at the time working in a dockside warehouse. He heard someone yell from the dock outside that the water was disappearing in the bay. While other stevedores ran to pick up fish flopping on the damp sand, Lee scurried up a Coast Guard tower to get a better look at the bay. Years later, he told a Big Island news reporter, I saw a brown wall of water coming in. The wall got higher and higher, and the whistling sound that came with it got louder and louder. Read story here