Nancy Pelosi’s tenure as Speaker of the House since Democrats won control has been nothing less than brilliant. Time and again, she has demonstrated keen political savvy in terms of what actions to take when for the Democrats’ best advantage. There seems to be no end to her ability to turn what appears to be a political disadvantage into an advantage.
Her latest act of political Jiu Jitsu involves the Senate trial of of Donald Trump prompted by the House of Representative’s decision to impeach him on two counts. How we actually got to this point where Trump was actually impeached demonstrated acute political acumen unto itself.
First, she’s been vindicated in her decision not to immediately impeach Trump after the Mueller report. Secondly, she’s been proven completely correct in her prediction that Trump would “impeach himself.” He did. Trump’s arrogant belief, after the Mueller investigation that he could do anything he wanted without repercussions...in other words, his own actions...is what provided the momentum that got us to the point of actual impeachment. And to the point where a plurality of Americans currently support both impeachment and removal from office, a complete about face from where we stood just six months ago.
And now, after Republicans...and most Democrats….assumed that Trump would simply be allowed to whitewash his actions with a sham impeachment “trial” in the Senate (wink-wink) since they have majority control there, Nancy has pulled yet another political rabbit out of the hat with her decision to simply sit on the House’s impeachment without sending it to the Senate...until Republicans agree to play fair.
She has turned the tables on Mitch McConnell and his fellow corrupt Republicans running the Senate by telling them that she will not allow them to use political bullying tactics to legitimize a whitewash of Trump’s corrupt political acts.
Republicans have nothing to gain by allowing the cloud of impeachment to hang over Trump...and the Republican Party...during a presidential….and Congressional...election year. In fact, they have everything to gain by doing Trump’s bidding and trying to end the whole impeachment process as soon as possible. She knows that. And is using it as a bludgeon to force the Senate to act reasonably (or at least more reasonably).
And now, Pelosi has, single handedly, salvaged the impeachment process by forcing McConnell to negotiate a more just trial in the Senate. And the American people, including a majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents, support a real, fair trial in the Senate as opposed to the sham that Republicans had planned.
That doesn’t mean that the game’s over and we’ve won, but we sure are in a lot better position today than we were just a week ago. Just like we were in a lot better position a week ago than we were a month ago. Just like we were in a lot better position three months ago than we were six months ago.
All because of the strong, effective leadership of Nancy Pelosi. If only we had a president as competent and smart as her.
Letting Trump “twist slowly in the wind” in political purgatory between House impeachment and Senate trial unless and until we get real justice in the Senate...could well go down in history as one of the most brilliant political moves in American political history.