Trump exemplifies abuse of power - By Jennifer Rubin
August 28 at 3:00 PM
President Richard Nixon faced impeachment not for any crime but, under the first article of impeachment, because, “in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice.” It does not say — and it was not established — that he committed a crime. In essence, the House of Representatives concluded that impeachment and removal would be justified if Nixon used the instruments of power not for the country’s benefit but to save his own political skin (“using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his close subordinates and agents, in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation” of the Watergate break-in).
As one charged with enforcement of the laws and the fair administration of justice, the president is not acting in the public interest when he uses his powers as a shield against inquiry. That seems particularly relevant as we begin to look at the case for impeachment against President Trump. Following on The Post’s blockbuster story that Trump was seeking a major deal with Russia at the time he was running for president, the New York Times reports:
A business associate of President Trump promised in 2015 to engineer a real estate deal with the aid of the president of Russia, Vladimir V. Putin, that he said would help Mr. Trump win the presidency.
The business associate, Felix Sater, wrote a series of emails to Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, in which he boasted about his ties to Mr. Putin and predicted that building a Trump Tower in Moscow would be a political boon to Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
“Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Mr. Sater wrote in an email. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
As the Times notes, there is no evidence Sater “delivered” for Trump, but what we do get is a clear picture, in conjunction with previous disclosures, of gross conflicts of interest and abuse of power.
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Harvey shows the anti-government crowd’s utter hypocrisy
By Jennifer Rubin August 28 at 1:45 PM
The Freedom Caucus, like-minded GOP senators and right-wing Beltway groups see government as the enemy — all public spending as suspect, all tax cuts positive, all deregulation good — with little nuance or understanding of the essential role government can play in the lives of not only the most vulnerable but also the middle-class people they might actually know.
The people who backed the government shutdown in 2013, refuse to kill the sequester (despite its utter failure to stop the debt from soaring, since it reaches only discretionary spending) and dream about privatizing the air traffic system have little regard for the professionals who do the day-to day work of governing. If a slew of government spots go unfilled (according to the Partnership for Public Service of 591 top political spots, 366 have no nominee), they see no problem. They reject the notion that professionals who are experts in their field know more than they do on diplomacy, climate change or any other complex matter. (Hence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s delay in filling open slots or his refusal to consult beyond his tight-knit staff.)
We can all agree that there is excess, wrongheadedness, confusion and sloth in some quarters of government. We can concede that many aspects of government need reform. However, the anti-government forces see government per se as negative. They care little for policy details or for reform. The ax is preferable to the scalpel for this group. (At times it leads to stunning ignorance — as when Republicans seemed clueless as to the scope of Medicaid and its coverage beyond the poorest of the poor.)
The anti-government crowd, however, seems indifferent to actual abuse of power, one key reason to keep government limited and transparent. These same anti-government figures couldn’t care less about President Trump’s conflicts of interest and money-making off the federal government, ludicrous nepotism that invests huge power in unqualified and ignorant presidential family members, abusive Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that tear apart families, or ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio’s vicious racism and violation of civil liberties. In sum, they hate the functioning, responsible and professional part of government while they embrace the authoritarian, abusive, erratic Trumpism we now see. Somehow the “rule of law” and of predictable government has gone out of fashion with the right wing.
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