|
Dear Group, During Devin Nunes’ fundraiser for McMorris Rodgers held at the Spokane Club on July 30 the proceedings were recorded. Selected contents of that recording were presented last evening on the Rachel Maddow show. You can listen to all 20 minutes of the show here. What we know so far all comes from there, although by the time you read this there will be a story on every network and most newspapers. Much of what is revealed is not really all that surprising. We have to assume that behind closed doors most Republican Representatives and Senators at times wish Trump weren’t Trump. Many undoubtedly wish they had achieved a Republican congressional majority with someone like Ted Cruz as President, someone who would not engage in daily political theater, someone a bit less flamboyant, someone whose actions did not so obviously merit legal scrutiny. But Trump is what they have. The recording presented on the Maddow Show makes it clear Nunes, and, apparently, the Republican leadership are willing to do nearly anything to keep Trump where he is and their agenda rolling along. It seems it is a question of the order of things. No. No. It would be bad to impeach Rosenstein now. No, it is more important to get Kavanaugh confirmed first. Nunes does not say so in the recording I’ve heard, but it seems clear there are two reasons: 1) Even if the current Republican house of cards collapses at the midterms another staunchly conservative Supreme Court Justice will change the direction of the Court for decades to come. 2) Kavanaugh’s writing suggest he would tend to support a President against investigation, certainly something useful to have in place before attacking Rosenstein and then taking down the Mueller investigation. Implied in the Nunes recording is that the House leadership will proceed to a Rosenstein impeachment if it looks necessary to protect Trump from the Mueller investigation. After all, justice, it appears, isn’t important, what’s important is this chance to advance the Republican/Libertarian agenda at all costs, the “all of this” that “goes away” in the following Nunes quote. If Sessions won’t unrecuse and Mueller won’t clear the president, we’re [the House Republicans] the only ones. Which is really the danger, I mean we have to keep all these seats. We have to keep the majority. If we do not keep the majority, all of this goes away, I suppose you could argue that Nunes is just trying to impress and strike fear in the hearts of the monied donors in the audience. After all, the plea he makes is to contribute to help us keep our seats because if we lose the House majority we will no longer be able to impeach Rosenstein and protect the President. Then, heaven help us, “all of this goes away.” Isn’t it fascinating that McMorris Rodgers, nominally part of House Leadership herself, brings Nunes to Spokane to provide this closed-door briefing to her donors? Remember McMorris Rodgers is fond of telling her constituents she “supports” the Mueller investigation. Yet here she stands with Nunes, now revealed as planning to impeach Rosenstein if necessary in his quest to protect Trump (and the Republican agenda) from Mueller. I don’t see that as “support” for the Mueller investigation. Time for McMorris to think of packing her bags? This is not the way I want my Representative (and Spokane) in the national news. Keep to the high ground, Jerry |