'A stinking fish': Dems see impeachment as weapon against Republican Senate

[brooklynite]

Politico

Senate Democrats are growing increasingly giddy at the prospect of seeing a half-dozen vulnerable senators squirm for weeks and months about Trump’s behavior before eventually being forced to go on the record to convict or acquit Trump if he’s impeached by the House. While conventional wisdom holds that trying to remove the president could cost House Democrats in battleground seats that Trump won in 2016, there’s a sense in the party that it could improve Democrats’ bid to seize the Senate.

“Voters are going to see this as a stinking fish. I don't think voters are going to want their member of Congress or Senate to be up here defending the president's actions,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “It'll be interesting to see what happens when Republicans come back from this [October] recess."
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Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) argued, “We need to do the right thing regardless of who’s benefiting,” before noting that there is an outsize number of Republican seats up for grabs next year.

A Senate trial “will make it make it very difficult for them to choose,” added Stabenow, the No. 4 Senate Democrat. “If I were them in many of the states where people are running, I certainly would, politically, be concerned about taking that vote.”

[Newest Reality]

1. Just note the tactics.

I think, at the very least, the tactics the Republicans use are getting more obvious and sloppy.

The idea is to provoke reactions, of course. The method is to deflect anything and everything from what is true and legal.

It seems to have worked well, but it has been more subtle. It is times like these, the repetition and intensity of the hair on fire brigades makes it the methods very obvious. They need to be called out again and again, especially if we value law and truth most.

It helps to think differently. Rather than reacting with anger or shock or annoyance, I pause and parse what they say and apply the above insight into the tactic. If you read the title of this thread that way, then it is clear that there is no weapon being used by the dems against the Republican Senate. It isn't even a delusion on their part. It is a deliberate fabrication and typical of how they try to sway and manufacture opinion. It has nothing to do with the very serious and critical situation we are in now.

I have seen people force the conversations with them to stay on the topic. That's going to have to be the real weapon of words. They can blather all they want, but if people don't fall for the logical fallacies, they won't succeed.

[empedocles]

2. Hmmm? traitortrump as 'The Stinking Fish'?

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Thanks to election 2018, power is still divided. We have some. Use it.

It's now or never.

[RVN VET71]

4. Someone elsewhere has pointed out McConnell's power

Specifically that he may be able to reject the House's action and refuse to allow a trial. If that's true, if Turtleman can actually do that, he will actually do that. Same as he unethically and immorally held up the nomination of Merrick Garland.

If that happens, the rodents in the Republican Senate will not be called to account for their support of a man who has used the U.S. Constitution for toilet paper since before his inauguration. Voters in some areas may be incensed and vote the rats out -- but would there be sufficient anger to vote in a Democratic majority in the Senate?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. FWIW, MoscowMitch released a legal opinion that Senate cannot refuse to try tRump after impeached.nt

[RVN VET71]

7. Thanks for that!

There's always the chance that Turtleman will find a way, whether to postpone or otherwise tamper with the process, but at least he's on record saying he won't. History is listening.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. I hope House Democrats postpone impeachment...

until, right before the election.