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Friday, January 18, 2019

Remembering Or Not?

When I was a child, I first noticed the license plates of cars from Quebec that said "Je me souviens."  I had no idea what it meant, so I looked it up and found out that the phrase is the motto of the province of Quebec and it literally means "I remember." 

The phrase comes to mind today as I see the crazy response to the Buzzfeed article that reports, without sources or evidence, that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the time line for the proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.  Most people know by now that the reporter for BuzzFeed admitted that he hasn't actually seen any evidence to support the story.  There are also no named sources cited.  On top of that the White House has said that the story is completely false.  None of that seems enough, however, to stop the crazed reaction from the Democrats and the media.

The crazy reaction is best summed up by the reaction of certain Democrats in the House who have said that if the story is true, the President Trump must be impeached immediately.  Got that?  They don't know if the story is true, but they're already calling for impeachment.  After all, if the story is true, then Trump told someone to lie to Congress.

Clearly, there are major problems with this story, not the least of which is that it would require believing Michael Cohen who has already pled guilty to lying repeatedly.  Cohen, a felon, is not really entitled to the benefit of the doubt here.  Further, there are all sorts of other problems with the story that I discussed earlier today. 

There are, however, further problems with this knee jerk call for impeachment by the Democrats.  First, they seem to be forgetting the last president to be impeached, Bill Clinton.  The basis for Clinton's impeachment was his own perjury.  He lied under oath to a federal court and there was no confusion about that lie.  There was physical evidence that proved Clinton had conducted an affair with Monica Lewinsky, but he denied it.  The perjury was clear, and it was serious enough that Clinton was disbarred for it.  Even so, at the time, the Democrats went on and on about how perjury was not a sufficient basis for impeachment.  Indeed, Nancy Pelosi who was a member of Congress at the time was outspoken about how actual and undeniable perjury was not enough for impeachment.  But that doesn't seem to matter to the Democrats; they seem not to remember their view at the time.  Instead they want to ignore the past.  Now, an unproven and inherently questionable claim that Trump told someone else to lie is absolutely enough for impeachment. 

I doubt much will come of this whole episode.  It will turn into just the latest installment of the never-ending stream of Fake News put out by second rate leftist media sites like BuzzFeed.  Still the Democrats would do well to remember the past and not to jump the gun here.  And by the way, they should also remember the past when after Clinton was impeached, his approval rating went up and his party did quite well in the next election.

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