Salon: Defeat is inevitable. Everybody knows it, even Trump

[Binkie The Clown]

I remember the day I first realized that Richard Nixon was doomed and one way or another would be removed from office. It was deep in the winter of 1974, I had been working for months on my own little corner of the Watergate story, and I was on Capitol Hill to meet one of the deputy counsels on the Senate Watergate Committee. I had been given an address on Capitol Hill for their offices, and when I arrived there I found myself standing outside an old movie theater. I was confused. This was supposed to be the office of the Senate Watergate Committee! I stopped somebody on the street and showed them my notebook where I had written down the address and asked them if I was in the right place. Yes, the passerby said. You’re at the right place. They’re right in there.

I entered through the theater’s front door and found no one in the lobby, so I wandered further inside. The theater wasn’t a theater anymore. It had been transformed into a makeshift office space. Fluorescent lamps hung down from the theater’s high ceiling illuminating a rabbit warren of cubicles packed with file cabinets and office storage boxes and desks buried beneath piles of paper. Phone lines and electrical wires were rigged into overhead conduits and dropped into the cubicles. Phones rang constantly, answered in a cacophony of voices by dozens of lawyers and investigators and researchers and staff assistants and research assistants and interns.

On my way over to Capitol Hill, I had stopped off to see a friend at the Washington Post. Its newsroom was a seething pit of activity. Woodward and Bernstein were there, of course, surrounded by dozens of other reporters working the phones, rifling through files, rushing off to interview sources. Elsewhere on Capitol Hill the House Judiciary Committee was staffing up with lawyers and investigators and researchers, getting ready for impeachment hearings. Only a few blocks away were the offices of Watergate Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, who had been appointed by Congress after Nixon had fired the first special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, in the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre.”

Jaworski’s offices were packed with prosecutors and staff assistants and researchers and experts in constitutional law, and they were interviewing witnesses and preparing subpoenas and scheduling testimony before the grand jury and filing indictments and announcing that this White House aide, or that campaign official, had pleaded guilty to one crime or another and was cooperating with the investigation. Already, Nixon campaign aide Herbert Porter had pleaded guilty to perjury, and Nixon’s personal lawyer, Herbert Kalmbach, had pleaded guilty to two charges of illegal campaign activities. The indictments of seven more of Nixon’s men were on the way: John Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian and Kenneth Parkinson. Now the special prosecutor was getting ready to subpoena the White House tapes. The end game had begun.

More at the link

[Aristus]

1. This article is ignoring the hundreds of elephants in the room:

Last edited Sat Jan 27, 2018, 05:11 PM - Edit history (1)

The Republican congressional majority. The republicans will never impeach Trump. Never.

Ever.

Trump is the culmination of the revenge plan the Republicans have been nurturing ever since Nixon resigned.

[deurbano]

3. And they don't even pretend to hold themselves to any principles or ethical standards anymore.

[calimary]

5. Still quite a humdinger of a read.

Enjoyed the glimpse into one corner of that historic chapter.

And when he got to Bebe Rebozo...

Shit - on one of the LA rock stations back then, the evening jock often joked rather snidely about “Bozo Rebebe”. We all knew who he was talking about.

I bet most of the on-air media at the time savored every chance the name Bebe Rebozo came up in their scripts. Just for the sheer excruciating joy of being able to utter that name out loud. Exquisite!

[Hortensis]

31. Glimpse into history, yes! I wondered if Hillary was there,

but looked and she worked for the HOUSE's impeachment inquiry, 26 at the time.

NEWSWEEK: On a Friday afternoon in early January 1974, Hillary Rodham was summoned into the drab office of John Doar, the chief counsel of the House impeachment inquiry into Richard Nixon. Doar was stony-faced and terse. Prepare a memo on the constitutional grounds for impeaching the president, he instructed, and have it on my desk by Tuesday.

Accompanying her boss John Doar as he brought the impeachment charges to the Senate Judiciary Committee in their hearing room.

[MustLoveBeagles]

38. Could this be the real reason she's so hated by some?

[Hortensis]

40. How could it be even this "rational," though?

They're open to a million reasons, and need none. Having different ideologies and goals should have generated disapproval and worry about her becoming president. She's never done a thing to justify the malice and lies directed at her.

Any hate, from right or left, arises from their own faults, and scientists say at least half of them hate because they're told to. If those were instructed to loathe hamburgers instead, they would.

Bless their dutifully-up-for-evil-when-called-on little hearts.

[MustLoveBeagles]

41. You're right

I guess I was trying to find a rational explanation for something that isn't rational.

[Gabi Hayes]

35. I want to know more about his .....bank

WTF was up with that place?

https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/05/18/dick-nixons-buddy-bebe-rebozo-comes-into-the-watergate-picture/

[LiberalLovinLug]

8. Because their supporters don't even want them too.

Its scary. Republican voters have been systematically brainwashed. With the help of an ex KGB director in Russia, to believe that they are fighting for the 'real' America. And its getting to the end times where all weapons must be on the table, even their own traditional moral values. God has sent them a wonderful blessing...a President that just doesn't give a shit. Who will cater to their most extremist indoctrinated beliefs. All they have to do is vote for him and put aside any and all criticism of what previously they would call 'ungodly'.


What I wonder is what happens post Trump with Republican voters? And will the new primary winner run an anti-Trump campaign, distancing themselves and re-branding the party, or will he (or she) run on the message that they will finish what Trump started. (Before he was brutally kicked out of office by Democrat deep state operatives, and fake news.)

Because either way, there will be a revolt in the ranks. There are two camps in the Republican party that for now are cooperating for the sake of either money or religious dogma. But once Trump is actually de-throned, I think the future leader will have to decide on a rock or a hard place.

[kairos12]

7. I've said this all along to my Progressive friends. Unfortunate, but true.

[smirkymonkey]

10. They may not be the majority for much longer.

Keep that in mind.

[davekriss]

13. It takes 67 Senators to impeach

While it takes only 217 votes in the House to indict, it takes a 2/3 majority to convict (“impeach”) in the Senate. If by miracle we regain a majority in the Senate, it will be slim. Thus we’ll never get enough votes in the Senate to boot out the Orange Anus. He’s the President until January 20, 2019.

[not fooled]

16. Unless

the KFC and Big Macs do their duty. There, I said it.

[smirkymonkey]

17. That is what I am hoping for.

Not only do I want him out of office, I want him gone from the face of the earth. He has tormented us long enough.

[yonder]

23. I really want to see him behind bars for a spell. A long spell,

before his diet has its way. In a perfect world, we'd get to see him in the laundry beating farts out of shirt tails, or hammering out license plates in the shop, all while constantly glancing over his shoulder. In a perfect world.

[pbmus]

18. Gonna be criminal charges, much more than just impeachable...

[not fooled]

20. Can he continue as fake president

from prison?

Just askin'

[Aristus]

32. The House impeaches, the Senate holds the trial.

Impeachment is the indictment. The difference confuses people. Repubs ask why, if Bill Clinton was impeached, wasn't he removed from office. And that's because he was acquitted by the Senate.

[davekriss]

33. I know that

Unfortunately I had the honor of having a former friend cast the last vote to impeach President Clinton. I was making the distinction between the relatively easy (majority) vote in the House needed to impeach (using the more readily understood term, “indict”), versus the difficult 2/3s vote needed in the Senate to convict. As you know, it takes the latter to remove a President from office.

Let’s say, via our hard persistent effort we win back the Senatez. Given the ratio of Democrats vs. Republicans up for re-election this term, we at best end up with 51-52 votes. We’d still need 15-16 Republican votes to convict. I just don’t see that happening. Thus, I say with disgust, it’s Trump until January 21, 2019.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

34. What do you think will be happening on January 21, 2019?

You've given that date twice now.

I think you mean January 21, 2021.

[davekriss]

36. Oops yes I meant the next Inauguration

Thanks for calling that out. 🙂 wishful thinking I guess.

[Hamlette]

24. We felt the same way about Nixon

Nixon's approval ratings bottomed out at about 25% in 1974. Although they were not as assholey as Trump supporters they were committed to him (don't forget the Nixon tattoo). And Nixon was not an asshole, not like Donnie.

We thought the GOP Congresscritters in 1974 would be reluctant to alienate their base.

The question is, will a few Goldwaters convince Trump his time is up? And who might that be? (Had you told me in 1974 it would be Goldwater I would not have believed you. I wouldn't have believed he would do it or that Nixon would listen to him. But, there you have it.)

[dawg day]

26. Oh, they'll desert him-

They'll quit him like they quitted all their supposed principles.

They'll be cagey about it, but they'll get him to resign. They like Pence, and they'll get him if Trump resigns. They'll help him manufacture some excuse.

[Eyeball_Kid]

27. You appear to underestimate the pervasiveness and severity of corruption in the Trumpy Admin.

Mueller likely will indict over 270 people in the biggest and deepest criminal investigation in US history. It's the money laundering, the human sex trafficking, the espionage, the treason, the Russian and Italian mafias, the bribes, the conspiracies, and more.

[Trueblue Texan]

30. call me paranoid...

I think the Republicans in Congress are complicit in Russian interference with the election. They have much to hide and impeaching Trump will take them down as well. Trump is allowed to tear down the Republic because he's doing Putin's bidding. And the Republicans know what is going on. At least the ones that matter know. I hope our nation can survive when daily the Republicans and the Thug president chip away at the foundations of this Democracy.

The election can't come soon enough for me. Paper ballots everyone!

[erronis]

2. Some good history about another wannabe tyrant. Suggest you credit the author (Lucian Truscott IV)

I'm beginning to believe that rationale people would try to make themselves in to gods.

Only the demented or dimwitted. Dump probably fits both of these so some degree.

[Sam McGee]

4. Lucian Truscott IV

Lucian Truscott IV is the grandson of Lucian Truscott Jr, senior WW II general who is one of very few general officers to command a division, a corps, and a field army in combat.

On Memorial Day, 1945, while speaking at a service at the US military cemetery in Anzio, Italy, Truscott turned his back on the audience and delivered his address to the graves of the soldiers who had died at Anzio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Truscott

Lucian IV graduated from West Point, challenged the military on several occasions, was discharged and makes his living as a writer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Truscott_IV

[underthematrix]

6. I don't believe the GOP House and senate majorities will survive past August of 2018

[smirkymonkey]

11. +1000

Their time is running out. And so is his.

[marble falls]

9. It won't be inevitable until we act like it isn't and get out the biggest Democratic turnout ever....

we need to remember how Trump was never ever going to be elected in the first place. We need to play like we're four points down, 10 seconds left on the 10 yard line, fourth and 10 yards to go.

[louis c]

12. I'm sure the writter has the wrong year

Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974. He must mean "deep in the winter of 1973".

[Blue_Adept]

14. Winter would be January-March 1974

That's what's considered the Winter of a year.

[louis c]

15. Oh, now I get it.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

19. 45 is one matter. Congress another.

Are we a nation of laws or not? If not, they must admit to their bowing to Authoritarianism.

[sharedvalues]

21. Exactly. Hes done. Dems need to focus on 2018 turnout

Its a Dem-majority country. GOP only wins vis voter suppression.

AL and VA turnout was huge. Thats what we need in Nov.


Take back a single house of Congress and the resulting subpoena power will bring down the President (and his stooges and billionaire and criminal supporters too).

[RandomAccess]

22. This is what I don't understand about the Republicans in Congress

THERE'S NO WAY OUT OF THIS.

Well, there are slightly different permutations of what happens, but Trump is guilty as sin -- of a wide variety of things. How can they not KNOW that? How can they not understand that he's not going to get away with all of it, even if he gets away with some? Too many legal and criminal offenses, too many people gunning for him.

[Gabi Hayes]

25. Yes, there is, for them, at least:

Another Enabling Act, ca. 1933-34, whatever year it was



Sinclair Lewis time

[Eyeball_Kid]

28. Trumpy's wet dream.

[Gabi Hayes]

29. This ones actually more like it

[UTUSN]

37. Rec for: 1) The historical details and 2) above all,the HOPE things today will have the same outcome

And the post above giving the author's own and family history makes me want to bite my tongue, but instead of that I'll go ahead and gripe:

Style: Irritating for a piece to start with the PROMISE of the eventual MacGuffin and then do a flashback forever, then one having to screw up one's eyes to pinpoint what the eventual MacGuffin is, only to find that the Mulligan was vaporous, scattershot, a mishmash of stuff not the ONE thing promised at the beginning.

THE opening PROMISE of the MACGUFFIN: "I remember the day I first realized that Richard Nixon was doomed and one way or another would be removed from office."

The FOREVER FLASHBACK (see the link) :

The pinpointing of what the promised MacGuffin (what a let down!1) : "That was the day I knew that Nixon was finished. Not because of the suitcase filled with cash from Bebe Rebozo’s bank headed for a casino in the Bahamas. Not because of the firings, resignations and indictments of figures from the Nixon reelection committee and White House. Not because it was inevitable that Nixon would have to give up the tapes, and the tapes would probably hang him.
As I stood there at the rear of the theater on Capitol Hill watching the staff of the Senate Watergate Committee at work, I realized that I was witnessing Washington’s immune system, and it had detected an infection. The offices of the Senate Watergate Committee, and the special prosecutor, and the Judiciary Committee, and the Washington Post, and the New York Times and the AP and UPI and the networks — all of them were flooding the bloodstream of the nation’s capital with antibodies focused on one thing: ridding the place of Richard Nixon."

[kentuck]

39. Interesting excerpt..

"It was unlike any bank I had ever seen. Located in a strip mall on the main drag through the island, the Key Biscayne Bank was in a narrow storefront, the kind of place that ordinarily might have housed a dry cleaner or a sandwich shop. It had a single counter across the end of the narrow room, and if you stopped in and asked to open an account, as I did, the lone teller on duty looked at you like you were out of your mind and answered, “We don’t have checking accounts at this bank.” How about a savings account? “We don’t have savings accounts, either.” What kind of bank didn’t have either checking or savings accounts?"