I have a certain sympathy for this opinion issued by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) concerning the delay of the delivery of the Articles of Impeachment by Speaker of the House Pelosi (D-CA) to the Senate for trial:
To put it politely, it’s not her job, according to the Constitution, to tell the Senate how to try an impeachment. The Constitution says that the House has the sole power of impeachment. We respect that. And the Constitution also says the Senate has the sole power of how to try an impeachment. [WaPo]
I think it’s technically correct and publicly acceptable, out of context.
So let’s add in the context, which is that of a Republican-controlled Senate in which Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) has basically said the trial will end in acquittal, and there will be no testimony from witnesses, and that McConnell will coordinate with White House lawyers to ensure that outcome, an exercise in dishonor which surely should leave McConnell ashamed. Given this context, Pelosi has a certain obligation to use any lever she has to assure a fair trial is possible, and since the Constitution makes no requirement as to the timing of the delivery of the articles, she’s more or less free to do what she wants.
So where might this go? At the moment, Speaker Pelosi has suggested she is merely in management mode, selecting Representatives to present the case while waiting for the Senate to go through the inevitable negotiations that will produce the structure of the trial. The latter reason is apparently upsetting some of the Republican Senators.
But what if she has more on her mind? We’re less than a year out on the next election cycles; less than 6 weeks out on the Iowa caucuses. If Speaker Pelosi believes an unresolved impeachment hanging over the head of President Trump and his allies serves the cause of the Democrats at either the Presidential or Congressional election levels, is it possible she’ll delay it for months?
Sure. Possibly as late as – say it with me – October.
This would give the Democrats time to educate the public on the alleged abuses promulgated by President Trump, and highlight the gross improprieties of the Republican Senators who have been so foolish as to comment on the upcoming trial, principally McConnell and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) (it’s necessary to note that many Republican Senators have observed proper behavior by not commenting on the upcoming trial). This pressure might actually serve to divide the Republican Senators and, just barely possibly, achieve a positive result, which would evict Trump from the Oval Office and ban him from ever running again for Federal office. Because his cult is so strong, it wouldn’t silence him – the squealings of unfairness would go on for years – but it’d diminish his plausibility among independents even more.
On the other hand, it also opens up the Democrats for more claims of partisanship, deepening the divide in the country, a division happily fanned by the Russians through divisive email campaigns and subtle social media manipulations, as well as by Fox News. (I commend conservative pundit Jennifer Rubin’s suggestion that Michael Bloomberg should not waste his time and money on a political run, but simply buy Fox News, fire its mendacious political commentators, and turn it into a real news operation.)
Then again, there’s always a chance that President Trump would blow a fuse in the interim.
On balance, I don’t think Pelosi will delay delivery for months, because, while it might appeal to her strategic instincts, it also requires a flare for the dramatic, and I’m not sure she’s that much of a drama queen. Still, it’s a potential maneuver which would hang over the heads of Republican Senators running for reelection, and might even function as a useful hammer for Democrats fighting off Republican rivals, simply by asking them if they would, or would not, vote to convict in the trial.
I expect to see Pelosi to deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate in the next few weeks, but I stand ready for a longer delay, lots of screaming, and a heck of a dramatic pause.
