I am one of the people who was sympathetic towards Speaker Pelosi’s reticence to start the impeachment inquiry. Trump was doing a good job of taking himself down as he became increasingly self sabotaging. His support was going south, yet public sentiment for impeachment in the polling was only in the high 30s. Most importantly however, it appeared she didn’t have the votes in the House of Representatives to bring it about. The last thing she needed was her own caucus members at public odds on this, lending credence to the Republican argument that not even Democrats themselves wanted it.
It could be Nancy Pelosi was just biding her time. She knew Trump had more fuck ups in him. Like a giant PEZ dispenser, he would eventually cough up another illegal act. Her prediction that Trump’s actions would increasing lead toward his own “self impeachment” came to fruition this week. Some might say such a transparent action of lawlessness forced her hand. Others that she was just waiting for something more prescient than the 2016 election and the Mueller Report. Either way, she seemed to me to be prepared to move when the opportunity arrived.
I am watching the process decisions so far and it looks like the house Democrats are demonstrating dexterity, bending to accommodate the fluidity of circumstances. This tells me Speaker Pelosi is leading her members by consulting with them to extract ideas broadly and winning the overall consensus necessary for coordinated action. No small fete for Democrats. It appears that she has gotten the six committee chairs to partially concede their individual spotlight in order to advance the greater cause. The strategy to have a single committee be the tip of the spear, the Intelligence Committee with Adam Schiff as the primary messenger means communication to the public has a better chance of being consistent and clear.
In a way, Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandoski and Robert Muller did the Democrats a favor by exposing process weaknesses. They turned out to be good practice in preparation for impeachment hearings. They revealed, among other things, that Jerry Nadler was not the best public messenger. Having a primary point of contact and selecting the best communicators to be interviewed by the media is key. Schiff seems up to it. I hope they also add Jim Hines and Sean Maloney to the media point team.
My confidence is rising that congressional Democrats can pull this off. Nancy Pelosi seems to be pulling the right levers so far.