Wednesday, April 11, 2018

IMPEACHMENT BEFORE THE MIDTERMS? NAHHH, WON'T HAPPEN.

Over at the Resurgent, Erick Erickson reproduces what he claims is an extended rant from a publicly pro-Trump Republican congressman who secretly wishes the president would just quit.
"It's like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really f*cking stupid Forrest Gump....

"I say a lot of shit on TV defending him.... But honestly, I wish the motherf*cker would just go away. We're going to lose the House, lose the Senate, and lose a bunch of states because of him. All his supporters will blame us for what we have or have not done, but he hasn't led. He wakes up in the morning, sh*ts all over Twitter, sh*ts all over us, sh*ts all over his staff, then hits golf balls. F*ck him. Of course, I can't say that in public or I'd get run out of town."
Erickson tells us that the unnamed congressman is a typical Republican.
He was never a die hard Trump supporter. He supported him in the general and never expected him to win. But he did. So the congressman, whose district Trump won, has been a regular supporter on Fox News and elsewhere defending the President. He is happy to be quoted, so long as I don't name him. He says he just needs to vent.
The congressman -- who, Erickson says, "has been a regular supporter on Fox News and elsewhere defending the President" -- is quoted as saying he believes there could be a vote on impeachment before November, and that many Republicans would be in favor. Once members of the House Judiciary Committee get through their primaries, he says, they might vote to dump Trump.
"Judiciary is stacked with a bunch of people who can win re-election so long as they don't piss off Trump voters in the primary. But if we get to summer and most of the primaries are over, they just might pull the trigger if the President fires Mueller. The sh*t will hit the fan if that happens and I'd vote to impeach him myself. Most of us would, I think. Hell, all the Democrats would and you only need a majority in the House. If we're going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherf**ker. Take him out with us and let Mike [Pence] take over. At least then we could sleep well at night," he said....
That's a cheery thought, but I don't buy it.

I can believe that a number of Republicans think Trump is an idiot and blame him for the trouble they're in. Some might suppose that they have nothing to lose -- they're in tough races, a Democratic wave is coming, and a lot of them are at serious risk of being defeated.

But not all of them -- and that's why they won't consider impeaching him, however disgusted with him they may be. As soon as there's so much as a rumor that Judiciary Committee Republicans are weighing articles of impeachment, the right-wing noise machine will be cranked up to supersonic decibel levels. It will be made clear that any Republican who votes for impeachment -- in committee or in the full House -- will be persona non grata in the party forevermore. If impeachment does clear the House as a whole thanks to Republican votes, GOP base voters, who love Trump, will blame the entire Republican Party, even those who voted no. Many longtime GOP voters will boycott the GOP in November -- hell, some may boycott the GOP forever. Trump is a god to the base -- and if he fires Mueller, the base will probably worship him even more.

The congressman is ready for President Pence ("You know having Mike as President would really piss off all the right people, too. They think they hate Trump. Mike is competent"). But the base isn't. Base voters love Trump because he constantly attacks their enemies, which is what these voters want most from any Republican. Pence can't compare. It doesn't matter that he might be far more capable of getting the GOP agenda enacted. It doesn't matter that he'd be harder to beat in 2020. The base vastly prefers Trump. If Republicans vote to impeach him, they'll do it at their peril.

I think most Republicans in Congress know that. If they don't, they'll hear it from their voters if this notion is ever seriously considered.

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