Quote
WaPo
House Republicans’ latest plan to shield President Trump from impeachment is to focus on at least three deputies — U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and possibly acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — who they say could have acted on their own to influence Ukraine policy.

Despite each one of them already having been on record as acting on the president's behalf for basically, well, everything, House Republicans’ latest plan to shield President Trump from impeachment is to focus on at least three deputies — U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and possibly acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — who they say could have acted on their own to influence Ukraine policy.

Normally I read the entire article. Not sure it matters this time.

[www.washingtonpost.com]

In a more prefect world, each and every objection House Republicans have to this impeachment will be vanquished one by by one, and they mostly all vote to impeach when it gets down to something as basic as to the three-letter spelling of the common household feline.

I said years ago that I thought he had Reagan-heimers, I guess that's the basis for where they seem to be going.

Anybody have an Iran-Contra-like name from a Three Stooges movie that applies to Giuliani, Sondland, and Mulvaney?

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Quote
Filliam H. Muffman
Anybody have an Iran-Contra-like name from a Three Stooges movie that applies to Giuliani, Sondland, and Mulvaney?

It’s the classic (American) CEO defense: that they somehow never knew what everyone under them were doing. Rogue employees, acting on their own ideas obtained from *somewhere* ... so regrettable when it happens.

Can’t wait to see Trump send them all under the bus, and they do the same to him.

One wonders where this strategy originated - did the GOPers in Congress decide the only way out of this was to throw these three under the bus...or is the WH behind it?

The GOP is well versed in FUD, so it really doesn’t matter where it originated from.

But according to one analysis of one strategy, Trump is too stupid to commit wrongdoing: [www.washingtonpost.com]

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When it's clear you can't win on the facts, your only option is to attack the process. When it's clear you can't derail the process, your only option is to attack your accusers.

Rinse and repeat until 11/3/2020.

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

Mulvaney has now joined Bolton in saying he wants to know if it’s “OK” to testify. Which is course a euphemistically way of saying they don’t want to do it, but nor do they think ignoring Congress is wise.

This, after submitting an excused absence note one minute before he was scheduled to testify that claimed absolute immunity (in that case, why not show up?)

To which I say, “LOL.”

Or it could be just another stall. They know that going through the courts will delay the inquiry for perhaps months, something Schiff has said he's unwilling to do.

I doubt either will ever testify.

Each side has resigned itself to this outcome. The GOP is betting that an obstruction charge won't stick, at least not once it gets to the Senate. Schiff has basically accepted that he's not going to get their testimony or the documents he wants, and will have to settle for itemizing them for the public when they draft the article of impeachment on obstruction.

Bolton thinks he threw Schiff a bone by saying he has lots of things to report, if only the courts would make him. In reality he's probably just adding kindling to the bonfire of his legacy, but either way nobody's talking.

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rj
AKA
Vreemac, Moth of the Future

Don't forget, Bolton will soon be on a book selling tour - a tour he's known was coming for awhile.