A history lesson on impeachment (not what you think)
A warning to DUers, and liberals/progressives in general, about the possible Trump impeachment.
This is not about Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. It’s a story about what happened in Connecticut.
John Rowland was a Republican politician out of Waterbury, CT. While he was conservative, he was generally fairly rational in his approach to policy because Democrats controlled the state legislature almost all the time. One thing I did respect about him was that he said while he was personally opposed to abortion, he knew Connecticut was a pro-choice state and he would not propose any abortion restrictions while governor and I am pretty sure he held to that promise.
But, Rowland was always a bit of a gruff politician and there were rumors of quid pro quo floating around him for years, but nothing came of it and he was easily re-elected twice.
Into his third term, a store broke that seemed to have legs that a contractor connected to Rowland got a cushy state contract in exchange for installing a fancy hot tub at Rowland’s home. While there were more serious charges against Rowland, this is the story that seemed to make the news and stay there.
Democrats in the state legislatures started looking into all the corruption allegations and Rowland ended up resigning when impeachment was looking likely.
You would think it would be happy days because Democrats were almost guaranteed to win the governorship in 2006, but no. It didn’t happen.
Jodi Rell was Rowland’s Lt Governor for his 10 years in office and she stepped in and the media almost worshiped the ground upon which she walked. They proclaimed her a breath of fresh air, even though she was Rowland’s right hand for 10 years and she could no wrong in the eyes of the media – Bob Engelhart – the Hartford Courant political cartoonist – took to drawing her in Snow White clothing she was seemingly so pure. It was almost like she was a ghost that entire 10 years and had no connection and no contact with Rowland.
Because of this seeming purity, she quickly became one of the most popular governors in the country and was re-elected in a huge landslide in 2006, defeating Democrat John DeStefano by almost 30 points. On the political scale, Rell was probably to the left of Joe Manchin, but she was still a Republican in a blue state and definitely to the right of DeStefano
Democrats were lucky that she decided to retire and not run again in 2010 or she likely would have won again.
Leaving aside figures like Flynn, Manafort, Page, etc being convicted, the lesson is that if Trump is the only one impeached and somebody new steps in, be they Mike Pence, Paul Ryan or Orrin Hatch, keep on kicking them while they are down. Do not let the media proclaim them a breath of fresh air or a big change from Trump– make sure that all of Trump’s corruption and collusion is also tied to Pence, Ryan, and McConnell and as many other people as possible. Tie it to them like a radioactive anchor.
