It's Draft Time: Impeachment Edition

[Dill]

(05-11-2017, 08:42 AM)hollodero Wrote: If he did it at the begin, no one would have. The "simply" part is not so much about him getting fired, it's about him getting fired right after the Russia investigation obvioulsy picked up pace.

It really is. Being more precise, it's the line of thinking I can see behind the firing. It's the only thing making sense. All the White House explanation don't do that.

As for Russia, nope no solid proof yet, but solid evidence about contacts, about Flynn not being properly vetted (or Russia/Turkey ties simply weren't cause for worry, which seems more likely), lying attorney generals, foreign agents, Carter Page and Paul Manafort, the FBI investigation. Warnings from FBI, CIA, NSA leaders - they're all partisan hacks to you?

I'm puzzled by the "no solid proof" claim as well--what a strange pattern of coincidences, accompanied by denials and clumsy firings.  Imagine a police chief in a small American town is investigating connections between the mayor's staff and a major drug dealer. The mayor fires the police chief because of behavior praised six months earlier and insists the department has lost confidence in him (though a letter from the rank and file states the opposite). When the city prosecutor wants to look at the mayor's bank account, he is fired too and local press is up in arms. Then a citizen who claims to be non-partisan steps up and, not commenting on the Mayor's actions of course, finds all those objecting to the mayors behavior to be "partisan." Just a firing after all, and no proof of any wrongdoing.

And certainly, firing Comey could affect the Russia investigation, along with the White House withholding documents. Trump can appoint someone who begins to incrementally shut down the investigation, restricting resources, eventually declaring nothing there. Republican ownership of the Senate, House and presidency makes this especially troubling--so few checks remain in place.  The only real check now is pressure on congressmen and senators from their constituents, aided by the "lying" press and leakers.

Not so easy. Polls record significant numbers of Trumpsters believe the Russia investigation is a total hoax. They believe Trump over the FBI and CIA and other intel organizations. When you are in that groupthink, the rukus over the Comey firing is not driven by angry recognition of a genuine threat to national security abetted by abuse of presidential power, but Democrats butthurt over a lost election. So in that mix, people are not a whit interested in sorting out the Russia problem. Democrats behavior, unconnected to any actual threat internal or external, is the real issue.

You probably don't get talk radio over in Austria, but here the right wing media daily repeats the claim the investigation has turned up "no solid evidence"--like we would be getting daily reports during an ongoing investigation--as the web of circumstance deepens and tightens weekly. The last two days the drumbeat has been "liberal hypocrisy"--as if people upset that Comey broke protocol and threw the election six months ago should now be happy that he is impulsively fired just as he steps up the Russia investigation. People who drove the Benghazi witch hunt for two years and seven separate investigations have had enough of liberal hypocrisy and want all agencies and committees to focus on the real problem--the leakers who exposed the Russia connections.