Quote (Skinned @ Feb 1 2020 09:29pm)
Here comes the richest part of the entire process: now that the president can't be held accountable a bunch of evidence will come out completely detailing his crime and all the Senators and Representatives who helped him cover up the crime will act upset about it. They all did this with the Iraq War, bitching for about 10 years about a war they authorized...They did this when they authorized the GLBA 1999 and created too big to fail banks too.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/03/politics/lisa-murkowski-trump-impeachment-vote/index.htmlQuote
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Monday that she "cannot vote to convict" President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial but nevertheless called his actions "shameful and wrong."
In remarks on the Senate floor Monday evening, the senator had strong words for Trump, saying, "The President's behavior was shameful and wrong. His personal interests do not take precedence over those of this great nation."
She went on to say, "The President has the responsibility to uphold the integrity and the honor of the office, not just for himself, but for all future presidents. Degrading the office by actions or even name-calling weakens it for future presidents and it weakens our country."
But Murkowski was also highly critical of the House and the Senate, accusing the House of rushing its impeachment inquiry and critiquing her colleagues in the Senate for lacking impartiality.
"The House rushed through what should have been one of the most serious, consequential undertakings of a legislative branch, simply to meet an artificial, self-imposed deadline," she said.
"The House failed in its responsibilities and the Senate, the Senate, should be ashamed by the rank partisanship that has been on display here," she said.
Alluding to stances taken by both Democrats and Republicans, Murkowski said, "Some have been calling for the President to be impeached for years," while "others in this chamber saw little need to even consider the arguments from the House before stating their intentions to acquit."
"For all the talk of impartiality, it is clear to me that few in this chamber approached this with a genuinely open mind," she said.
Murkowski, who has a reputation as a relatively independent-minded moderate Republican, had been closely watched as a potential swing vote during the impeachment trial.
But after outlining many of her criticisms with the proceedings, the Republican senator said that ultimately she had concluded "that there would be no fair trial," and said she could not vote to convict in the trial.
Quote
"The response to the President's behavior is not to disenfranchise nearly 63 million Americans and remove him from the ballot. The House could have pursued censure and not immediately jumped to the remedy of last resort. I cannot vote to convict. The Constitution provides for impeachment, but does not demand it in all instances," she said.
Murkowski suggested that ultimately voters will decide Trump's fate.
"The President's name is on ballots that have already been cast," she said. "The voters will pronounce a verdict in nine months, and we must trust their judgment."
I take back every bad thing I've said about Senator Murkowski after the way she verballed everybody in Congress including the GOP for covering up a crime and the Democrats for doing the most extreme thing possible as a response to the investigation.
It sucks she ultimately voted on Team Cover Up but she wasn't given much of a choice in terms of realpolitik.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Feb 4 2020 12:21am)
Quite the change lol.
Republican seemed to become much less principled over time.
Everybody knows the umbrella has stayed the same. Now that trump has the Republican party focused on white identity politics they might become more consistent.... Before their leaders were just afraid to say it.. Trump has demonstrated that the racist does not have to hide or be ashamed anymore. I bet this changes as the leadership gains more focus. It doesn't surprise me that the Republican voters soured after they just fell in line and had Bush walk over them, get so many of their sons killed with his war..and then how the GOP just did not even show up to work from 2008 until 2014 and from 14-16 just having a fundraiser with Benghazi :
https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2014/05/08/310795987/latest-partisan-flashpoint-gop-benghazi-fundraisinghttps://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/republicans-benghazi-fundraising-trey-gowdy-106461https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/of-course-republicans-wont-stop-fundraising-off-benghazi/361920/https://newrepublic.com/article/117713/darrell-issas-benghazi-fundraising-how-his-campaign-grew-richThat would leave a bad taste in my mouth as well. I give money to the DNC and they have never asked me to give money to investigate negligent leadership that allowed the September 11th attacks to happen on the World Trade Center on behalf of the GOP...I would probably cut them out if they suggested that also...
So after Bush and Benghazi I can see how any conservative voter with any class would run from Republican politics. Trump doubly so if they have respect for their wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters.
I'm not sure if you know this but we have a whole voting Bloc of individuals who are conservative who are embarrassed of the Republican party and they are called Independents here. If you go by the issues they are conservatively aligned overwhelmingly, but they just aren't bovine-minded enough to embrace GOP politics.
This post was edited by Skinned on Feb 4 2020 06:06am