PrintQueen Pelosi's Abuse of Power
It was fascinating to see to see Speaker Pelosi, fresh from a congressional jaunt to a climate change conference in sunny Spain, explain to us the urgency of impeaching President Trump after, as Rep. Andy Biggs points out, the equivalent of two months of congressional recesses in which none of the American people's business was done.
One of those was the Thanksgiving recess, during which the 31 House members from House districts Trump won, and others, got an earful from constituents who wanted to know why nothing's been done on prescription drug prices, border security, putting together a budget, or the USMCA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Right now, it looks like a virtual Christmas Eve impeachment vote happening on Dec. 21 or Dec. 22. More likely her urgency is triggered by the upcoming multi-week Christmas recess, where, once again, constituents will give their representatives an earful, further cooling impeachment fervor, which polls say is declining among the American people, particularly among independents and in key battleground states.
Pelosi, who probably had to be told by staff who James Madison is, wrapped herself in the Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers after a lifetime of opposing originalist nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court and telling us that the Constitution, which created the Electoral College, which she and other Democrats now oppose, is a living document that means what activist judges say it means in the context of the liberal agenda of our times. If George Washington had been told he could be impeached over a conversation with a foreign leader in which no bribes were offered or accepted, he might have retired to Mt. Vernon a little early, telling us to forget the whole thing.
George Washington, James Madison, George Mason, and all the others believed in full due process, and the rights of the accused, including the right to confront one's accusers, call witnesses in defense of the charge, and cross-examine hostile witnesses in fair and open proceedings. They did not believe in star chamber proceedings in the basement of the House of Representatives. They expected that the defendant would know the crime, and it had to be a real crime — not a tweet being witness intimidation being a high crime and misdemeanor. They did not expect the "ccrime" to be based on hearsay and presumptions, defined by whatever term did the best when trotted out before focus groups.
They established three branches of government, not two, as token defense witness Prof. Jonathan Turley so eloquently put it. Disputes between the Legislative and Executive Branches were to be settled by the courts, but Nancy Pelosi has no time for the courts. If Congress wants documents and testimony and the White House refuses, take it to court. This is no more obstruction of Congress than a presidential veto of a bill is. It is not grounds for impeachment.
Pelosi says America doesn't need a king. It doesn't need a queen, either — a queen of hearts who lives in a Wonderland where she pronounces the sentence first and holds the trial later.
When President Trump inquired of Ukrainian president Zelensky about Ukraine's investigations into the Bidens, Burisma, and possible corruption, he was actually required to do so by treaty:
Yes, there is an actual treaty between the U.S. and Ukraine which obligates the leaders of both countries to cooperate fully and together on investigations of corruption, particularly criminal matters and corruption that involves both the United States and the Ukraine. The phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, and it's [sic] content, were not only legal, but the discussion and requests are actually mandated. Joe Biden was a Senator when the Treaty Between the United States of America and Ukraine on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters was written, and the president who signed this treaty with Ukraine was none other than William Jefferson Clinton!
So now it is grounds for impeachment by Congress to enforce a treaty ratified by Congress? The signpost up ahead says we have entered The Schiff Zone, a parallel universe where you are guilty until judge, jury, and executioner Schiff says you are innocent. As BPR Business and Politics notes:
A 1999 treaty with Ukraine, signed by Bill Clinton, provides a rock-solid basis for President Trump's request for Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for alleged corruption.
The Bidens are in up to their armpits with regard to a potential renewed Burisma Holdings natural gas probe ... an overdue investigation that was in fact initially stopped by VP Biden while he was in office ... a fact[.]
Trump's inquiry is also required by statutes such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Nation Defense Authorization Act.
Rep Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, summed it up nicely in his reaction to Pelosi's announcement that her circular firing squad will proceed with impeachment:
"She is flat-out not telling the truth," Biggs said immediately after Pelosi's announcement. "The facts are highly contested here." Biggs, appearing on Fox News, also questioned why, if Pelosi and others in the House believed that the circumstances surrounding impeachment were truly pressing, that she allowed so much time to pass over the past few months before moving forward. "Why did we take all of August off ... another week off in September, almost two weeks in October, another 10 days in November with no action on impeachment or investigation?"
Biggs also rebuked Pelosi's assertion that the Trump presidency resembled an unelected monarch rather than the office of an elected head of state. "When she talks about a monarchy, that's why we have elections," he said.
Abuse of power? It is Queen Pelosi who is guilty of abuse or power, as Prof. Jonathan Turley testified before Rep. Nadler and his irrelevant House Judiciary Committee:
Constitutional scholar and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told lawmakers on Wednesday during the Trump impeachment inquiry hearing that it would be an abuse of their power to impeach President Trump.
Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Turley accused lawmakers of doing "precisely" what they're condemning Trump for doing and urged the committee to respect the separation of powers during the process or risk abusing their positions.
"I can't emphasize this enough and I'll say it just one more time: If you impeach a president, if you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts; it is an abuse of power," Turley said. "It's your abuse of power."
The American people are tired of this anti-Trump Deep State vendetta and will express their wrath as the Founding Fathers intended: at the ballot box next November, when Pelosi will become the first speaker if the House to lose the speakership twice. The people are tired of hearings that go nowhere and trials that will be fruitless while their needs are ignored.
Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor's Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
