Two-Fer

In their crazed, ever-changing attempts to rid the nation of a duly-elected president, the Democrats have achieved a two-fer. The party base has now been taken over by far-left activists, and they will not be denied. They dislike Joe Biden intensely. Sure, not like the red-hot hatred with which they view Donald Trump, but still a dislike that is palpable. Biden is old school, a moderate, and that gets in the way of their vision of a socialist Utopia with leadership that will put big government at the center of all of our lives, reducing freedoms once held dear, controlling speech and thought, wrecking our economy, and encouraging the flight of capital outside our borders, which have been opened to all. Biden, therefore, is a problem.

Using this latest Ukrainian phone call "scandal" as a way to remove Trump from office also sullies Biden with the taint of ethical, if not criminal, lapses. The Dem base hopes for a two-fer — Bye, Bye, Joe. Bye, Bye Donald.

Kim Strassel comments:

The Trump years have been rough on Democrats’ sensibilities, and their thinking has become increasingly addled as a result. The party has worked tirelessly to create an issue worthy of impeaching the president—Russia collusion, obstruction of justice, Stormy Daniels, tax returns. This week Democrats jettisoned all that in favor of the only issue that implicates their own front-runner for the nomination. Genius.

The one person who has been as much in the news this week as Donald Trump is former Vice President Joe Biden. It’s a dubious accomplishment. The only way to discuss Mr. Trump’s nonsmoking-gun phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is to acknowledge the subject of the ruckus: Mr. Biden’s glaring conflicts of interest during his vice presidency vis-à-vis his son Hunter’s business interests. Since Democrats insist on making this all about Ukraine, get ready for daily new revelations about the young Mr. Biden’s questionable activities and “Quid Pro Joe’s” involvement.

This is why the former vice president’s promises that this scandal will fade are nonsense. True, the media is doing double-duty on his behalf. Its general line is that Mr. Biden’s conflicts are fine; asking about them is corrupt. We are seeing a lot of stories about how Democrats are determined not to let Republicans “Hillary” Mr. Biden—a historical rewrite that places the blame for Mrs. Clinton’s notorious ethical travails on her rivals. The “fact checkers” are out in force with soothing assurances that there’s no evidence any Biden broke the law.

It's very likely that in the fever swamp of Democratic strategy, the House will vote out articles of impeachment over a phone call that by any rational reading, was meaningless. The Dems are willing to put the country through all of this because they are unwilling to propose policies and candidates that can defeat Trump at the ballot box—a mere 14 months away. Their actions are not simply hard-ball politics, rather they are grotesque and disgusting.

If the Dems succeed in their effort to impact the election, not by proposing better ideas and solutions, but via "impeachment" dishonesty and innuendo, politics, already ugly in this country, will morph into a hellscape of phony accusations and hoax allegations. They are far too deranged to realize that what goes around comes around. When they do return to power, they will be attacked in the same way. That's not good for the country, but given their recent actions, it's apparent the Dems don't much care about that.

Richard Fernandez (@wretchardthecat) tweets:

The unfortunate nature of a power struggle is not about who's right, but who is stronger and more ruthless.

The Dems have that sage wisdom on their side.

They are stronger in the sense that the have an array of tools (the media, the arts, academia, entertainment, and even the deep state) that they can bring to bear to defeat their enemy. All of those tools define the narrative and do so with a venom that exhausts all but the very strongest opponent.

They are significantly more ruthless. The Dems are not only willing, but enthusiastic about using lies and the politics of personal destruction to ruin and defeat their opponents by any means necessary.

Their quest for power is paramount. It's all consuming, and it's driving them to collective insanity. That's particularly frightening if you give them even a small chance of grasping the reins of power.


UPDATE-1:
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As the Dems and their trained hamsters in the media tell us that our republic has been threatened by a "whistle blower report" that is momentous, Victor David Hansen does a little analysis:

The whistleblower admits to hearsay (“I was not a direct witness to most of the events described”). His term-paper report is laden with anonymously sourced rumors, e.g., “According to multiple White House officials I spoke with,” “I was told by White House officials,” “Based on my understanding,” “I learned from multiple officials,” “I do not know whether similar measures were taken,” “I do not know whether those officials spoke with or met with . . . ”

Between references to Internet news accounts and “I heard from” and “I learned from” and “I do not know” anonymous officials, there is nothing here to launch an impeachment of any president.

In the complaint are all the now-familiar tell-tale signs of pseudo-exactness, in the form of Mueller-report-like footnotes and page references to liberal media outlets such as Bloomberg, ABC, and the New York Times. There is the accustomed Steele-dossier scare bullet points. We see again Comey-memo-like disputes over classification status with capital letters UNCLASSIFIED stamped as headers and footers and TOP SECRET lined out.

Scary references abound to the supposed laws that the legal-eagle whistleblower believes were violated. In sum, there is all the usual evidence of an administrative-state bureaucrat, likely to be some third-tier Brennan or Clapper-like intelligence operative, who is canvassing disgruntled White House staffers, writing a report that imitates intelligence-department formats, combing the Internet, in “dream-team” and “all-star” footnote fashion, for scare quotes and anti-Trump stories, and then likely having it dressed up in legalese by an activist lawyer. Take all that away, and one is left with “I heard.”

After nearly three years of this, we know the delivery system that ensues. Along with the sensationalized initial media hype, the promised “smoking gun” leak usually follows. But when the “overwhelming” evidence or “walls are closing in” documents are released, there is no criminal act to be found other than occasional art-of-the-deal bluster from Trump. And then on to the next crude coup attempt, since the line of wannabe Glen Simpsons, Bruce Ohrs, Andrew McCabes, and John Brennans seems endless.

The Dems are persistent, no doubt, but they are also shameless. Power is what they want, and based on the history of false accusations levied over the past 30 months, they will stop at nothing to get it.

UPDATE-2:
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The Legal Insurrection blog looks at the backstory and also comments on the ramifications of the actions of "moles in government:"

The left grew used to having opponents of a certain type [e.g. John McCain, Mitt Romney who were 'gentlemen and would never push back on the vicious and often deranged attacks that often come out of the left], and Trump most definitely is not of that type. That’s why the NeverTrumpers [in the GOP] hate him, too, perhaps even more than the left does, because the NeverTrumpers were (and are) of that type as well.

They all feel deeply betrayed, not so much by Trump as by the American people who chose him and repudiated them. And the people must not be allowed to get away with it.

Impeachment is just one part of the war against Trump that has been waged relentlessly since the day he was elected and even before. This latest issue regarding Trump’s conversation with Zelensky is notable for many things, but one of them is the evidence it gives of the relentless surveillance of Trump by moles in government willing to report every single thing he does that might be capitalized on by the anti-Trump forces. Trump can trust no one, and no foreign head of state who talks to him can trust that their communication will not be broadcast to the world.

This is not good for the country, but the Democrats think it’s very good for them.