National Review agrees with Shifty Schiff?
In an article titled "Removal Would Be Insane, Kicking Trump Out of Office Isn't Necessary to Hold Him Accountable," Rich Lowry of National Review states:
Congress can hold hearings on a president's conduct, subpoena witnesses and documents and fight the executive with full force if they aren't produced, hold officials in contempt, produce reports, withhold funding, deny the executive traditional forms of interbranch comity, and, if it wants to put down a long-lasting marker, censure the president.
The premise of the headline and article is that Trump needs to be held accountable for whatever Lowry thinks Trump did wrong. Lowry doesn't say what Trump did wrong to incur the wrath of National Review.
National Review also published an article by the editors titled "Impeachment Doesn't Require a Crime," stating:
Senate Republicans, by and large, have reached an unspoken consensus about President Trump and Ukraine. He should not have put a temporary freeze on congressionally authorized aid to Ukraine, should not have dabbled with using the aid to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden or a nutty theory about Ukrainian hacking during the 2016 election, and should not have kept defending his "perfect call" as such. At the same time, his conduct does not merit his removal from office — especially since voters will get to pass judgment on that conduct in a few months.
How do the National Review editors know what the Senate Republicans have concluded? Maybe the editors can read the minds of the Senate Republicans as Shifty Schiff can read the mind of Donald Trump. National Review agrees with the facts and substance of the Shifty Schiff arguments for abuse of power but doesn't agree with removal because we have an election this year.
N.R. still doesn't understand why President Trump won in 2016 and will win again in 2020. It opposed the nomination of President Trump in early 2016.
N.R. accepts the premise, facts, and arguments of the Shifty Schiff impeachment. But it wants to plea-bargain down from removal to censure. Wow.
With "conservatives" like this, who needs the Democrats? This is the attitude of the weak Republican establishment of McCain-Romney-Bush to accept the premise of the Democrats and the media but argue to fine-tune how to do what the Democrats want, such as when Bush 1 raised taxes after his "read my lips" promise to not raise taxes, or when McCain and Romney did not aggressively campaign against Obama, or when Bush 2 did not respond to the attacks of Democrat majority leader Harry Reid.
Trump won and will win because he doesn't accept the premise of whatever the Democrats and their media want. The 63 million who voted for Trump understand and agree with President Trump, but obviously, N.R. doesn't.
At a time when President Trump needs the support of all Republicans, conservatives, and others, N.R. gives its support to Shifty Schiff.