Wondering on Wednesday (v171)

Where do we begin with today's wondering?

Maybe we start with the president saying he'd go to the Supreme Court to prevent an impeachment action, which is of course a legitimate oversight activity of a co-equal branch of government?  Trump has said that not only are there no high crimes or misdemeanors, but there's no crimes at all - the latter part, at least so far, is true when it comes to him.

But impeachment is a political check and balance, not a criminal one - and if you look at what Trump's personal senator, Lindsey Graham said regarding the impeachment of Bill Clinton, there's room for the current Congress to act.

So the point I'm trying to make is that you don't even have to be convicted of a crime, to lose your job in this constitutional republic, if this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role... Because impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.

Yes, yes it is. And I wonder what Graham would say now?

Or, maybe we should start wondering what's going to happen next?  The president has been found 'not chargeable' because the Justice Department feels a sitting president can't be indicted, so the obstruction that he attempted to do, all that might just be water under the impeachment bridge or over the "we'll charge you when you're out of office" dam, or something.

But now he's formally and very publicly obstructing Congressional investigations. Trump will attempt to block testimony by Don McGahn, his former attorney. He barred a guy from the security clearance operation from testifying, likely leading to a Contempt of Congress citation. He's sued a financial firm to block them from releasing information requested by Congress and also sued Elijah Cummings, chair of the House Oversight Committee, for asking for the records. The IRS has missed a deadline to turn over Trump's taxes as requested...  and on and on it will go.

If he didn't officially obstruct Robert Mueller's investigation, he has no qualms about obstructing Congress...

What else can we wonder about?

How much political capital has Joe Biden lost with all talking and thinking and delaying and talking and leaking and thinking and threatening and promising?  It's a horrible start to a campaign that should not be occurring, much as I like Biden. He made the right decision staying out in 2016, and that would have been the right decision now, as well. He can be more effective hitting Trump from the wings than he can as a candidate.

I'm also wondering where the House immigration plan is? The House tax plan? The House infrastructure plan?  The House Health Care plan?

We know a lot about the investigations, and impeachment.  And we know about the Green New Deal vote.  But where are all of the other pieces of legislation that they're working on? If they don't start talking about those as much as they can't stop talking about the investigations, they're in trouble. And so are the rest of us.

Back to Biden and the 2020 race, and at least peripherally related to what the House is/isn't talking about:  I wonder what it's going to take to get people talking about the 2020 Democratic candidates in terms of their policies and positions and aspirations for our country, instead of what they might have done wrong 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago? And instead of their 'electability' and how well they're doing in the early polls?

We've seen what 'electability' bring us - and doesn't. We now know that even a pompous self-promoting blowhard petulant charlatan is electable, so I don't know believe any Democrat should be entertaining discussions about their electability when the bar is so low it's covered with dirt and other things that you scrape off your shoes before going into the house. I mean, that's a really, really low bar right there.

We deserve better for the candidates, and from the media, don't we?

What are you wondering about tonight?