Democrats had been holding back as they ready a slew of charges against Trump.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Ukraine affair may force them forward.

Impeachment is getting a jump-start.

Sure, some intervention — divine, political or otherwise — could still stop the House from voting on the political equivalent of an indictment on crimes against the nation.

But House Democrats have been pulling together a wide-ranging case to impeach President Donald Trump on a series of alleged past and ongoing crimes against the country — a set of charges that goes far beyond the Mueller report — and all signs point to a possible public inflection point later this week, when acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testifies before the House Intelligence Committee.

"The dam could break on Thursday," one senior House Democratic aide, whose boss has not endorsed impeachment, told NBC News.

The panel's chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has been the most reluctant of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's top lieutenants to move toward impeaching the president, but Democrats say Schiff is spitting hot vinegar over Maguire's decision to withhold an intelligence community whistleblower's complaint about Trump's dealings with Ukraine at the insistence of the Justice Department.

Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., said Democrats should move forward quickly with impeachment if Maguire doesn't turn over the complaint.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/analysis-democrats-had-been-holding-back-as-they-ready-a-slew-of-charges-against-trump-the-ukraine-affair-may-force-them-forward/ar-AAHJBzi?li=BBnb7Kz

[regnaD kciN]

2. What part of "no" don't they understand...?

Pelosi's been crystal-clear: there will be no impeachment, because Senate Republicans haven't joined in already. Don't like it? There's an election in fourteen months.

Whether you agree with her or think her strategy is disastrous, it is what it is. I can't fathom those, here or elsewhere, who persist in hearing her "no" as a "yes."

And, if the whistleblower's complaint isn't turned over, don't count on a bill of impeachment, merely a move to the courts to try to force its release, a process that is likely to take more than a year, by which time we'll already have our nominee and be in mid-campaign (see "election in fourteen months," above).

Anyone thinking that's likely to change may as well also believe that Fitzmas is going to come after all.

[NCLefty]

3. *sigh*... was there any other way a Donald Trump presidency could end? This was so GD predictabe...

[BlueWI]

4. We'll have to see.

The preference for risk aversion has to be overcome, and impeachment would be an open battle of political wits and will with everything at stake.

At this point, there is no choice but an impeachment vote in the full house. It's still far enough in front of the primaries that it gives the public a chance to focus on the facts before the voting starts.