Robert Mueller made it clear that the impediment to indictment of President Trump for obstruction of justice is the Justice Department’s position that a sitting president cannot be indicted for any crime. Charging Trump is the job of Congress. An impeachment inquiry must begin immediately.

~Richard Painter/Politico, July 24, 2019

In response to the protests against the Vietnam war and at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, the GOP branded itself as the party of law and order.  While that was clearly an opportunistic appeal to the “silent majority,”  this week Republicans still seem to be the only ones willing to vehemently stand up for the rule of law.  No,  I’m not talking about the Trump sycophants who continue to defend their glorious leader who, as of Wednesday, has been identified as an un-indicted co-conspirator in not one, but two crimes: illegal payments to silence a porn star and obstruction of justice.

My reference is to Republicans, who unfortunately are as much out of power in Washington as the Democrats.  These include Richard Painter, quoted above, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer when George W. Bush was president.

But this “power outage” also includes members of the current administration.  For example, in Congressional testimony on Tuesday, FBI director Chris Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee.  “The Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections.”  On a different topic, Wray confirmed that the majority of domestic terrorism cases his agency investigates represent “some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.”

No further evidence than the response to these warnings is needed to understand the former Republican Party is now something entirely different, the political equivalent of the Branch Davidians defined and controlled by Donald Trump.  Has Trump in any way discouraged white supremacists?  NO!  Instead he welcomes their support and normalizes their bigotry.  Has the “Republican” controlled Senate denounced white supremacist inspired domestic terrorism?  To the contrary, Senators Ted Cruz (TX) and Bill Cassidy (LA) just introduced a resolution to label Antifa (short for anti-fascist) as a domestic terror organization. Crickets when it comes to the white supremacist march on Charlottesville and its organizer Proud Boys’ co-founder Jason Kessler.

And yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Republican Richard Burr (NC), released its finding that “Russia’s activities against U.S. election infrastructure likely sought to further their overarching goal; undermining the integrity of elections and American confidence in democracy.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s response?  He blocked two bills from floor consideration.  One would require paper backup for all electronic voting systems.  The other would fund the Elections Assistance Commission to help states upgrade computer systems to prevent future cyber attacks. He characterized the bills as “partisan legislation.”  Just so we understand what he is saying.  If our elections were safeguarded against cyber attacks, the Democrats would have an advantage.  In other words, Republicans would most likely lose without the aid of hackers and further foreign interference .

So who are the most vocal critics of McConnell’s actions.  Among them is Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman and MSNBC host of Morning Joe.  He now refers to the Kentucky Senator only as “Moscow Mitch,” accusing McConnell of “aiding and abetting Vladimir Putin’s efforts to undermine American democracy.”  He rightfully described such behavior as “un-American.”  If only Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer would pick up the “Moscow Mitch” mantra to remind voters on a daily basis Trump’s dependence on Russian support is being sheltered by faux patriots.

But the real profile in courage is former assistant White House communications director under Bush #43 Nicolle Wallace, now host of MSNBC’s Deadline White House.  This is not based solely on her refusal to report the crapola spouted by Trump and his lemmings as giving equal time to both sides.  On Wednesday she made the following common sense observation of the Mueller hearing.

Let’s not ‘both sides’ the Democrats.  The Democrats considered this a fact-finding mission. The Republicans were all auditioning for the next weeknight show on Fox News.

My admiration of Wallace comes from the fact she is not a “Joanie come lately.”  On her show, she never talks about the fact she was assigned the worse job in political history by John McCain’s campaign manager Steve Schmidt.  Handling Sarah Palin following the announcement the Alaska governor would be McCain’s running mate.  In their book Game Change, John Heilemann and Mark Halperin describe how, on election night 2008, Wallace confesses to Schmidt, “I did not vote.”  Then, as now, she understood cult politics threatened the American experiment in democracy.

Nancy Pelosi keeps saying she needs bi-partisan support to green light the impeachment process.  Nancy, you already have it.  Do not confuse the Trump cultists with Republicans.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP