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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPelosi on impeachment: "He has given us no choice."
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/nancy-pelosi-an-extremely-stable-genius
Before we begin to grapple with the gravity of the impeachment inquiry that is now upon us, can we acknowledge yet again the extreme weirdness of our times? If, through the distorting mists of time, the heroes and antiheroes of the Watergate saga seem positively Shakespearean in their statureNixon raging on the heath, his cunning satraps devising their poisoned betrayalswhat to make of todays dramatis personae of Kiev and Washington, Presidents Zelensky and Trump, one a comic actor turned fledgling statesman, the other a real-estate grifter turned . . . political grifter? Scholars of the Volodymyr Zelensky filmography will recall his appearances in Love in the Big City 2 and Rzhevsky Versus Napoleon. And they will credit his work in the television show Servant of the People, in which he played the President of Ukraine, a role that set him on the path to being the actual President of Ukraine. Zelensky is an expressive comic artist. And so it is not hard to imagine his mask of terrorized bewilderment as he held a telephone to his ear in July and listened to the ex-star of The Apprentice deliver an implicit threat to deprive his country of military aid and diplomatic standing if he failed to interfere in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election on Trumps behalf. This is our reality.
From the start, Pelosi has confronted Trump with a wry fearlessness. When, in a moment of rare self-aggrandizement, Trump referred to himself as an extremely stable genius, she replied, When the extremely stable genius starts acting more Presidential, Ill be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade, and other issues. In an Oval Office confrontation last year, she brooked no disrespect from Trump and asked that he please not underestimate the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats. When, on another occasion, Trump referred to Pelosi as a mess, the Speaker thoughtfully suggested that the President might benefit from an intervention for the good of the country.
For months, however, Pelosi avoided the ultimate intervention. She frustrated many members of the Democratic caucus who believedfor myriad reasons, some contained in the Mueller report, some notthat they should pursue an impeachment inquiry against the President. Pelosi was reluctant, worried that there was not enough evidence to prevent a backfire scenario, in which Trump would emerge from impeachment still safely in office, emboldened, unchallenged by his own party, a martyr with an enhanced prospect at reëlection.
*****
Could impeachment still backfire? I asked.
It doesnt matter, she said. We handled this with such care. It isnt like we ran into this. He has taken us to this place. He has given us no choice. Politics has nothing to do with impeachment, in my view.
Before we begin to grapple with the gravity of the impeachment inquiry that is now upon us, can we acknowledge yet again the extreme weirdness of our times? If, through the distorting mists of time, the heroes and antiheroes of the Watergate saga seem positively Shakespearean in their statureNixon raging on the heath, his cunning satraps devising their poisoned betrayalswhat to make of todays dramatis personae of Kiev and Washington, Presidents Zelensky and Trump, one a comic actor turned fledgling statesman, the other a real-estate grifter turned . . . political grifter? Scholars of the Volodymyr Zelensky filmography will recall his appearances in Love in the Big City 2 and Rzhevsky Versus Napoleon. And they will credit his work in the television show Servant of the People, in which he played the President of Ukraine, a role that set him on the path to being the actual President of Ukraine. Zelensky is an expressive comic artist. And so it is not hard to imagine his mask of terrorized bewilderment as he held a telephone to his ear in July and listened to the ex-star of The Apprentice deliver an implicit threat to deprive his country of military aid and diplomatic standing if he failed to interfere in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election on Trumps behalf. This is our reality.
From the start, Pelosi has confronted Trump with a wry fearlessness. When, in a moment of rare self-aggrandizement, Trump referred to himself as an extremely stable genius, she replied, When the extremely stable genius starts acting more Presidential, Ill be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade, and other issues. In an Oval Office confrontation last year, she brooked no disrespect from Trump and asked that he please not underestimate the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats. When, on another occasion, Trump referred to Pelosi as a mess, the Speaker thoughtfully suggested that the President might benefit from an intervention for the good of the country.
For months, however, Pelosi avoided the ultimate intervention. She frustrated many members of the Democratic caucus who believedfor myriad reasons, some contained in the Mueller report, some notthat they should pursue an impeachment inquiry against the President. Pelosi was reluctant, worried that there was not enough evidence to prevent a backfire scenario, in which Trump would emerge from impeachment still safely in office, emboldened, unchallenged by his own party, a martyr with an enhanced prospect at reëlection.
*****
Could impeachment still backfire? I asked.
It doesnt matter, she said. We handled this with such care. It isnt like we ran into this. He has taken us to this place. He has given us no choice. Politics has nothing to do with impeachment, in my view.
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Pelosi on impeachment: "He has given us no choice." (Original Post)
Miles Archer
Sep 2019
OP
sprinkleeninow
(20,136 posts)1. The dump dedicates this song to the Democratic House: