A Case for Multiple Articles of Impeachment
Quick diary: I was watching the handoff between Rachel and Lawrence O’Donnell just now, and Lawrence made a point I think makes a lot of sense: The House should report more than one article of impeachment, because this will give Republican Senators a way of saying, “Look, I voted against almost all of them, but on this one — extorting Ukraine for his own political gain — I just had to vote against him.” And all it takes is one article to kick him out.
My argument for multiple articles had been that it would drive home just how corrupt, how venal, how unfit, how much a danger to national security, this man (technically, he is a man) is. But O’Donnell has been a Senate staffer and his tactical argument makes a lot of sense.
The House shouldn’t spend too much time on the articles, but with six committees working at the same time — a MUCH smarter move than a select committee — who have already been looking into Trump’s criminality, it shouldn’t take all that much time.
I’m just going to suggest a couple of articles from a comment I wrote on another diary:
- Misuse of the Air Force and of taxpayer funds to stabilize his failing resort in Scotland.
- Charging above-market rates to the Secret Service that have to stay at his resorts in order to guard him as required by law, to enrich himself at taxpayer expense.
- Allowing a foreign country (Saudi Arabia) to set the conditions under which American boys and girls will be sent to war, in return for financial support for his hotels.
Each of these is easy to understand, goes right to issues the country can relate to, and can probably be sustained — but they also meet O’Donnell’s qualification that Republicans can point to them and say, well, I wasn’t persuaded on these… but on telling Ukraine to help him with the 2020 election if they want to keep their country, yeah, he’s gotta get kicked out for that one.
