Which bum? Anyone the rabid, fascist Republicans call a bum, and sometimes that is even a Republican. If you are not going to legislate or govern you do not need a speaker of the house or any other leadership. And since keeping our alliances and standing up to aggressors requires a government, I guess we will just have to bend over and take what comes. Sorry, I digress. This throw the bum out story is really about impeachments. Unfortunately, I still have to use the plural because Sen. Comer still hasn’t figured out what a laughing stock he has become for not giving up on the impeachment of Biden.* Ah, the hell with it! Since Sen. Comer is not prepared to bring that absurdity to the house floor, I’m going to restrict myself to a discussion of the attempted impeachment of Sec. Mayorkas and just let the other things I mentioned linger in the background, much like the choking layers of smog lingered in the days of my childhood.
Majority leader Schumer responded to the delivery of the articles of impeachment yesterday with a unanimous consent request to give senators time to debate the trial procedure and to consider resolutions sponsored by Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to either hold a full trial or send the impeachment to a special committee for thorough review. I was put off a bit by Sen. Schumer’s generosity. He was going to give the Republicans two hours to hold a pissing contest over his plan to move to dismiss the impeachment after defeating the motions to hold a trial or refer it to committee.
While the undiscerning Republican base might be impressed with that contest, it certainly was not anything I wanted to see, and it did not happen. GOP disfunction and the stupidity of Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) came to my rescue. In what Lawrence O’Donnell so aptly described as the singularly most stupid thing he has ever seen a senator do, Eric Schmitt objected to the unanimous consent request, thereby killing it. Gone was the opportunity for Republicans to put on a show, and they were at wits end about it. There was a pause in the proceedings as they formed a huddle to figure out what they wanted to do next!
I was laughing my head off. Thoughts of my deceased brother came to mind. He would have found this even more amusing than I did. There was no doubt in Majority Leader Schumer’s mind about what to do. He moved to dismiss the first article of impeachment on the grounds that it did not allege an impeachable high crime or misdemeanor. And when that passed, he moved to dismiss the second article on the same grounds. That motion also passed, ending the impeachment.
*Still no grounds for impeaching Biden.