In impeachment, McConnell and Paul are the embarrassments that keep Kentucky blushing
Could there be anything more embarrassing and depressing than being from Kentucky this week?
First we get to watch our senior Senator Mitch McConnell shred democracy and decency to their last tatters by announcing a political whitewash of the most corrupt president in U.S. history, then follow it through in a trial that would make the Founders weep. But hey, at least he’s efficient. Trump will waltz off into the campaign season impeached but as promised, acquitted.
Then there’s junior Sen. Rand Paul. Despite the fact that every nearly sentient human knows how this will turn out, he spent Tuesday, the last day of the Senate’s impeachment trial, bouncing around like a demented toddler on the Senate floor. He’s still upset, it seems, that Chief Justice John Roberts wouldn’t read his question that identified the whistleblower who first started this whole mess. So Paul did it himself in time allotted for speeches, announcing the whistleblower’s name, then denying it in the elevated nanny nanny boo boo oratory that has made him famous:
“They made a big mistake not allowing my question,” Paul said, according to Politico. “My question did not talk about anybody who is a whistleblower, my question did not accuse anybody of being whistleblower, it did not make a statement believing that someone was a whistleblower. I simply named two people’s names because I think it’s very important to know what happened.”
This is, of course, nonsense, just as it’s nonsense to expect us to believe that Donald Trump wouldn’t hold military aid to investigate one of his political rivals. It’s as Trumpian as sexual assault, nepotism and financial self-dealing. What’s not clear is why Paul believes that it’s in the nation’s or Kentucky’s best interest for him to embarrass himself and his constituents with this whistleblower nonsense. Can’t he just make up some ridiculous excuses for why he’s voting to acquit like most of the other Republicans?
Then there’s McConnell, whose efficient venality is utterly depressing. He didn’t want witnesses, even in the light of new allegations from John Bolton (John Bolton! To think for a few days our hopes for our nation depended on that warmonger) and he didn’t get them. McConnell wanted a quick trial, he sort of got it. He must be feeling as good as he did the day Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. McConnell, the man who ensured Gorsuch by blocking Obama’s rightful pick, who has never chosen country above the GOP, actually had the audacity to say Wednesday: “We simply cannot let factional fevers break our institutions.”
Thank you, at least, to Sen. Mitt Romney, for showing some guts and principles and voting no with this great line: “Were I to ignore the evidence that has been presented, and disregard what I believe my oath and the Constitution demands of me for the sake of a partisan end, it would, I fear, expose my character to history’s rebuke and the censure of my own conscience.”
It is curious that the Republican Senate seems to be assuming that a Democrat will never be elected to the White House again so that person can experience a presidency with immense power almost unchecked by Congress. Have they never heard of “turnabout is fair play?” But given the mayhem of the Iowa caucus, maybe Republicans have a point.
That this all has happened on either side of the State of the Union speech is the cherry on the cake for Republicans like McConnell, who are justified in gloating alongside Trump. Yes, yes, Nancy Pelosi tore up Trump’s speech in an act of childish theater, but can it really hold a candle to awarding Rush Limbaugh, that racist gasbag, the Medal of Freedom in the middle of his speech?
So if you believe that immigrant children shouldn’t be put in cages or that presidents shouldn’t pay off strippers, or that your state’s duly elected senators should uphold federal law and the barest minimum of dignity, it’s been a rough week. It’s amazing to think of the number of people willing to aid and abet and support Trump in the midst of his truly overwhelming crimes, and that Mitch and Rand will probably cruise to reelection in 2020 and 2022. It’s no wonder Kentucky’s voter turnout rarely tops 50 percent.
But I also know there are many, many people who believe in what we used to call democracy, believe in protecting our most vulnerable citizens, our air, our water, our most basic freedoms. Yes, you’re depressed, yes, you’re embarrassed. But all you can do is get busy. Register more voters. Talk to more people. It’s only eight months until the next election and you know what to do.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 1:55 PM.
