Sure — but Flake does not have to vote on impeachment.
And given who does get to vote, Flake is never going to have to vote on conviction. (He won’t be there in the next session.)
We need to demand Congress insert a provision in the omnibus spending bill to protect Mueller.
Yeah, I know, Why would Congress listen to a bunch of meaningless voters? But it’s worth a try.
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I’ll second that. Flake has to walk through his day as a Republican Senator who bucks a President who’s ever more accepted by the rank and file (thanks, FOX) and powerful within his party. As much as the lawmakers may stare at the ceiling at night, wondering what the hell is going to become of them when the dam bursts, they’re cowards who don’t want trouble, and the slightest nod toward the truth is the kind of trouble they don’t want. I’m pretty sure he gets a hard time over this stuff, as much as we (including me) pooh-pooh it.
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It’s more nuanced than that. The independent counsel statute that Mueller is operating under didn’t exist when Nixon was President. Current law states that the independent counsel can be removed only for good cause. Examples of good cause include: misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, or conflict of interest.
Therefore, a willing person in the DOJ chain of command cannot just fire Mueller and shut down the investigation with an arbitrary exercise of authority. They have to demonstrate, or fabricate as the case may be, good cause.
One other nugget: In the old Independent Counsel statute that existed from 1977 to 1999, the IC had the right to seek judicial review and possible reinstatement if they were fired or shut down. The current special counsel law doesn’t address it. I am not a lawyer, so it would be interesting to learn if Mueller would be allowed to seek judicial review if he felt the good cause provisions were abused to end his investigation.
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He probably won’t. This is probably all symbolic.
But this quest to endlessly out-hyperbole the last guy reminds me of the worst, dumbest, most vitriolic Democratic fights of 2005. We don’t win by out-douring each other, nor do we win by shouting at the wavering in our opponents’ ranks, “ahhh omg what took you so long!?”
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"Impeach
Convict
Remove
Indict
Convict
Imprison" - Mordant K.
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Rant concludes: until today, no Republican Senators had said that the necessary response to Mueller’s hypothetical firing was impeachment. Now, one of them has.
If you think that’s a bad sign for our democracy, I think you’re high.
I’m gonna go have a beer. Be excellent to one another.
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That is a good point. We might get the government shut down anyway, but let’s face it, with Republicans shut downs are SOP. He might try to fire Mueller but then he runs into the problem tena pointed out above. Who will do it? What’s an orange shit stain to do? Tune in, it should be interesting.
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Actually yes.
When was the last time you said something, while you were dying, on a national stage, that was guaranteed to make your life long political friends hate you.
Please check in when you have experienced this so we can consider what you have learned.
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Thanks for that.
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He continued, “I sure hope someone starts that process, someone with integrity. I’ll watch from the sidelines, because that really isn’t my job. Oh wait.”
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That is priceless. By the time I got to Rand Paul I was cracking up. Are you a comedy writer by any chance? Thanks.
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Bill Palmer–not the most reliable person I know, but not the least either–thinks that the fact that both Flake and Graham uttered the i-word on the same day is highly significant. I wonder.
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Republicans since GWB have shown a propensity to not have a floor for decency, morality or sensibility. It’s a party of hate which use power for selfish ends, and I submit that not only will Trump fire Mueller through some very awkward terms, but will be backed up by republicans who will then take steps to shore up means to “win” the midterms. If what I predict actually occurs, then 2016 before Trump will have looked like a very good year indeed.
I don’t know but it isn’t nothing. It’s something.
There was a time when people thought that they were just waiting and hoping for Mueller to give them enough to get rid of him. Al Franken told us that. Now everyone thinks they love him. I think they have been keeping him as calm as they could figure how to do myself. He’s their president. We live in partisan times. It’s not supposed to be easy to impeach any president, however. If it was we’d lose more of them.
But it isn’t nothing that two GOP senators said that today. They said “impeach”
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♫ feelings ♫
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“Only kings, editors, and people with tapeworm may use the royal we.” —Mark Twain
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More than two Republican Senators need to say that the consequence for firing Mueller is impeachment, but this is a start. House members need to start speaking out as well.
OT but another bomb in Austin! Is this two in one day?
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