Well, I confess it has taken awhile but I now understand why Republicans think the impeachment inquiry against the Orange Anti-Christ is GOOD for…um…Republicans.  See, the story goes like this: now that those crazed Dems have initiated the inquiry, the Trump team can subpoena anybody they want and ask them anything they want!  Finally, they’ll get the “facts” on every anti-Dem fever dream they’ve ever had.  People, they’re sure, are going to jail.  Democrat people.

Besides, they intone, the Republicans in Congress will not impeach Trump, no matter what the evidence shows.  For modern Republicans, party is more important than country.  Party protection trumps (if you will) the Constitution.  That’s not a position I can respect…

I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think you can ask “anybody you want, anything you want.”  I mean, I guess they can ask but there are going to be other lawyers there asking how those questions are relevant to the issues at hand…

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I suspect even the conservative rank and file is concerned Donnie Dumbass may have stepped in it this time.  They’re working overtime to try and make some other historical event – Joe Biden’s intervention in Ukraine – seem relevant.  But it isn’t.

The conservative story is that Hunter Biden, Joe’s son, worked for a company that was under investigation and Joe intervened to have the lead investigator fired in order to protect his son.  It would be a damning story – except for the details.

First, let’s assume Hunter got his job with Burisma, a natural gas company, specifically because he was the son of the Vice President of the United States.  Yeah, that sucks but it’s the way rich people do things in this world.  He probably had a LONG list of “job offers” in front of him.  All he had to do was pick one.  Now, hold that thought for a minute…

According to Reuters, the investigation in question focused on the years 2010 – 2012.  This time period was before hunter went to work for the company.  That means Hunter wasn’t under any personal threat from the investigation.  Under the worst possible scenario – a ridiculous scenario – the worst thing that might have happened was that Burisma would be shuttered completely.  Of course that was never going to happen but if it did, the worst it would mean for Hunter is that he’d have to go back to his list of plum job offers he received because he’s the son of the Vice President.

So…WHY would Joe intervene on behalf of Hunter if Hunter wasn’t under any threat?

But they’ll keep hammering because they don’t have a choice…

The truth is, I understand how this came about in the first place.  Trump sits around most of the day watching Fox ‘News.’  Like most Fox viewers, he’s completely oblivious to the reality that Fox just makes stuff up.  Fox makes up a story about Hunter in an attack on Joe, Trump believes it and decides he’s in the perfect position to “prove” the truth of the tale.  The thing is, there IS no truth to the tale…

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This is important.  I don’t know HOW the process will play out but I think the House had no choice but to initiate an impeachment inquiry but, perhaps, not for the reason people think.  Here’s a little tidbit from the US Constitution.  (Honestly, I don’t know if it still applies in this once-great nation but this is what it says…)

This is Article 2, Section 2, paragraph 1: “…he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” (emphasis mine, archaic spelling, the founders…)

Trump reportedly promised his crony sycophants they could feel free to break laws in building his wall because he can and will simply pardon them, so we know, without question, Trump is willing to subvert the law and abuse his authority.  Because this is an impeachment inquiry, he CAN’T simply pardon his way out of trouble on this one.  That might be the single most important point to the whole process…