Tag: impeachment

The Seinfeld Impeachment

The TV sitcom Seinfeld was infamously “a show about nothing.” The GOP House of Representatives’ move to impeach President Biden is an impeachment about nothing. The House GOP cannot give a clear answer about why President Biden should be impeached other than a bunch of pablum about alleged foreign payments. And it is true that Hunter Biden was a drug addict, tax cheat, and in a horribly bad place a few years ago. But there is precisely zero evidence that President Biden did anything illegal or even unethical regarding Hunter’s problems. The most is that Hunter Biden paid his father back for money he loaned him with money he received from overseas sources. But that means nothing—even if the GOP could somehow find evidence that the younger Biden’s money was the fruit of some illicit scheme, there’s no evidence that President Biden was in any way involved.

Even members of the GOP have admitted that there is simply no evidence of anything impeachable there. The “evidence” that the GOP relies upon is largely drawn from straight-out Russian disinformation or completely at odds with reality. At the end of the day, the impeachment is just a way of throwing some red meat to the GOP’s Stupid and Delusional Caucus. The problem with this is that every single member of the GOP House voted for this farce. Not a single one stood up to say “this is a complete and utter waste of time.”

Not only is this impeachment a farce, but it is likely to engender a massive amount of blowback. The GOP has been arguing that Biden has been weak on issues like inflation and border security. And while most Americans do not care about border security, inflation and the cost of living is perhaps the issue for at least a plurality of voters. And what have the GOP done to ease inflation? I’ll let you pick from two answers: Jack and shit. Instead it’s been nothing but a relentless scramble to play to the most radical elements of the GOP base. The problem is that this GOP is not remotely smart enough to make the political plays necessary to give this impeachment scheme the chance to move the needle. If anything, it is quite likely that the GOP’s “letting its freak flag fly” will throw a lifeline to the Biden Campaign that faces what certainly appears to be a massive polling headwind.

At the end of the day, the GOP’s only guiding principle is sucking up to the far right MAGA crowd. The GOP has not even the first clue about speaking to normal Americans. And just is in 2020, 2022, and 2023 the further the GOP gets its head shoved into the cavernous sphincter of the MAGA Cinematic Universe, the less they notice the world around them.

The backlash to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is probably the beginning of a major political realignment. Even Trump, whose only intelligence is that of a flatworm even can see the political pain that abortion has. And what is the GOP doing? Pushing for a national ban abortion ban and writing a billion attack ads through their own idiotic actions.

The biggest issue in 2024 will not be a bullshit impeachment. If anything, this stupid impeachment stunt is an in-kind contribution to the Biden Campaign. The GOP could have played the only winning political card they had: hammering Biden on inflation and the cost of living. Instead they have handed Biden the perfect attack line: that the GOP has not done a damn thing to fix inflation, but instead has played to the most radical members of its caucus. And not only that, not a single GOP member of Congress had the cojones to stand up say that this should not be a priority.

This is exactly why the current GOP is neither willing nor able to do anything but preen for the cameras. And at the end of the day, the GOP is missing a surge happening right under their feet. The 2022 and 2023 elections should have been a wake-up call. Instead the GOP is living in its fantasy world.

America needs two vibrant political parties. It only has one at the moment, and the other is acting like the Manson Family Circus. This impeachment stunt just highlights the clown car nature of the contemporary GOP, and voters will respond accordingly next year.

Kevin McCarthy’s Deal With The Devil Comes Due

In order for Kevin McCarthy to win his position as Speaker of the House after 15 ballots, McCarthy had to make a deal with the devil—he had to agree to ridiculous concessions that would give the most radical members of the House the power to force his hand on key issues. McCarthy was narrowly able to avert a government shutdown earlier this year, but now the GOP’s Caucus of Crazies have demanded that McCarthy launch a politically disastrous attempt to impeach President Joe Biden. McCarthy, with his Speaker’s chair turned into a Siege Perilous, has acquiesced to the insane demands of the most radical members of his caucus.

The claim is that President Biden has fostered a “culture of corruption.” The problem with this claim is that there is precisely zero evidence of it. Yes, his son Hunter Biden was clearly trading on his family name. However, that may be unethical, but it is absolutely not illegal. If you think that Jared Kushner got his $2 billion payout from the Saudi Royal Family on the basis of his business acumen, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. There is simply zero evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong other than have a son with some very deep personal problems. The claims that President Biden somehow received a “bribe” or that he interfered in Ukraine on behalf of Burisma are both completely false. There is no evidence of either, as a GOP probe already determined. But the lack of evidence has not prevented the GOP from desperately trying to find a pony in that giant pile of right-wing horseshit.

Logan Roy from Succession saying "you are not serious people"
As Logan Roy from Succession might say, the GOP is not made up of serious people.

Ultimately, a clearly politically-motivated impeachment is a gift to President Biden. The impeachment investigation is likely to go nowhere. It it is not at all clear that McCarthy would have enough votes in the House to actually impeach Biden. Any impeachment would be DOA in the Senate. Instead, impeachment will demonstrate to independent and swing voters that the GOP is just not a serious party. Impeachment is a distraction, a base play for a base that is already shrinking. A serious GOP would be thinking of ways to win back the suburban voters that it lost during the Trump years. Issues like crime and inflation may not be quite as powerful as they were when the GOP’s “red wave” turned into a ripple, but at least they are real issues. Trying to paint Joe Biden as some kind of nefarious crime lord is just ridiculous. Voters did not care about Hunter Biden in 2020, and they’re not going to care in 2024.

Kevin McCarthy made a deal with the devil to become Speaker of the House, Not giving the radicals like Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz the impeachment they demand mean losing his position as Speaker. But giving them what they want might well do the same. There are enough GOP candidates that won districts that were Biden leaning that will be made incredibly vulnerable by this quixotic impeachment campaign to swing the House. The problem with deals with the devil is that the devil always wants his due. Kevin McCarthy is finding that out the hard way.