DOUG THOMPSON: House majority makes the rules

GOP dealt a bad hand by Trump

"In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed."

-- Abraham Lincoln

People I respect express sincere concern about the process the U.S. House adopted Thursday in the impeachment investigation. I do not share those concerns.

Either way, there is nothing to be done about it.

The House majority has the power. They can push this as far as they want so long as they keep public support. The strong smell of something rotten in the White House assures public support. This support is not strong everywhere and certainly not in much of Arkansas, but it is in most of the nation.

By the same standard, President Donald Trump never enjoyed enough public support to fend off such an investigation once it got rolling. The best-known fact about his presidency is: He heavily lost the popular vote but won the election through the Electoral College. This makes no difference so far as getting into office -- but it turns out this matters a great deal when on the defensive from inside the office.

As for the theoretical topic of whether the Democrats are abusing their power? If so, it will backfire.

I do not buy the "process" argument. The Democrats were left a vacuum of accountability to fill. They filled it. Those who object should not have left a vacuum.

Beyond that, recall how House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came under attack from within her own caucus for much of this year. Some of the loudest Democratic House members waxed indignant for months. They wanted an impeachment investigation in January. Pelosi did not budge.

The speaker waited. Then the president blundered -- horribly. As I said in September, "Trump rages almost every day about leaks. Yet two years and eight months into his term he demanded a smear job while a dozen people, not counting Ukrainians, listened. He has learned nothing." (A correction: The call to Ukraine's president was two years and six months into Trump's term. It was the summary of it that became public two months later.)

Pelosi showed command over a fractious caucus for months. Now she adds the clout that comes from being proven right.

Love her, hate her or feel only indifference for the speaker, Pelosi knows exactly how far she can go and no farther. House Republicans direly need a leader who can create and sustain such party discipline. GOP House members' lectures to Pelosi on proper procedure and due process are, to be blunt, cringe-worthy.

The House GOP holds a bad hand. They do not play it well. The president dealt the cards. Also, to state the obvious, there would be no impeachment inquiry if Trump had not led his party to a loss of 40 seats in the House.

Public support shifted toward an impeachment investigation after the release of that White House summary of the president's phone call with Ukraine's president. The summary was damning. Anyone who tells you it was not -- including the president -- in a deep state of denial. Read it. President Trump put Ukraine over a barrel to try and get a smear job on his most feared political rival. Look at how public support for impeachment shifted. There is no reason to believe the summary written at the White House fully reflects how bad the call was, either.

Further, the impeachment investigation is making hay. Staggering details of the Ukrainian plot keep coming out. The president's defenders are reduced to smearing decorated veterans and people with long, unblemished careers of public service. Yet those witnesses could pass background checks for a security clearance. Several members of the president's inner circle could not. The president approved them anyway.

The president's long, unbroken and sometimes inexplicable habit of lying does not help him, either. Add to all of that the president's stonewalling of Congress' investigation to the best of his remaining ability.

Finally, there is the most important matter of all. I do not say what I am about to say lightly.

Making excuses for disloyalty to the United States is disloyalty, too.

Of all the advantages the Democrats have in this fight, none is greater than the appearance the GOP House caucus is more concerned with protecting Trump than the vital interests and good name of the United States.

Commentary on 11/02/2019

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