'Feel free to leak this': Inside the Pelosi-Nadler impeachment schism

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico

In a closed-door meeting last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi stunned lawmakers and aides with a swipe at Democratic staff on the House Judiciary Committee.

Pelosi criticized the panel’s handling of impeachment in harsh terms, complaining committee aides have advanced the push for ousting President Donald Trump far beyond where the House Democratic Caucus stands. Democrats simply don’t have the votes on the floor to impeach Trump, Pelosi said.

“And you can feel free to leak this,” Pelosi added, according to multiple people in the room. Pelosi’s office declined to comment on the meeting.

It was the latest sign of the widening schism between Pelosi and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, two longtime allies who are increasingly in conflict over where to guide the party at one of its most critical moments.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/18/pelosi-nadler-schism-impeachment-1501755

---

Someone will complain that Politico is pushing a "Democrats in Disarray" meme. If the Party Leadership can't come to agreement on what the ongoing strategy is, that's worth knowing.

[ArizonaLib]

1. It's a good topic for leadership to at forefront

Whether timing is good now, bad now, whatever - leadership needs to be ready to move together with whatever discussion is necessary. It's not just votes in the house, the electorate will vote them out if they don't have a good handle on the electorate's feelings. I know there is political risk in having impeachment be a campaign rallying point for a president in office. As much as I want to see impeachment hearings, I don't want to see a 2nd term.

[Rollo]

22. The focus now should be to vote him out...

... but that doesn't preclude turning over every stone to expose his malfeasance in office.

If by some stroke of bad luck, Trump manages to win a second term, then gloves should be off as far as impeachment goes.

[ArizonaLib]

24. Exactly

Cheers!

[ffr]

2. "...that's worth knowing." Why? I don't see what the problem is.

But this story does seem quite pointed that instead of focusing on the KGOP's corruption, they're entire focus is on he-said she-said within the democratic leadership. So what!? The point is the corruption of the KGOP with relation to Russia.

I'd say this hit piece from Politico is borderline RW talking point peddling.

[crazytown]

3. Democrats in Disarray!

Democrats in Disarray! Democrats in Disarray! Democrats in Disarray! Democrats in Disarray!

What a sorry excuse for an OP.

[NurseJackie]

5. Amen.

What a sorry excuse for an OP.

Amen.

[Jose Garcia]

4. What the hell does she know about counting votes?

[mysteryowl]

6. I really don't believe this at all.

Nope. Not true.

[brooklynite]

8. DO you believe Politico made up the bombshell story about Jerry Falwell Jr.?

Or do they just make up stories you don't like?

[cwydro]

10. You seriously believe they just made it up out of whole cloth?

Really?

[bucolic_frolic]

7. It's the legal perspective vs. the political perspective

Given access to the facts and investigations, impeachment is necessary and doable.

The political reality to carry it out is a different fish.

If you impeach and fail to convict and remove, what will be the political fallout?

[LiberalLovinLug]

13. Not much

Senate Republicans have already cast their lot with the bloated orange baffoon. Everyone knows they are all in. Mitch, Lindsay, all of them. Them voting 'no' is a given. Hey, if they pulled a "yes", in some new plan to rid themselves of Donnie thinking he was just too much of a liability, that would work too.

Nancy needs to get with the program and if there are not enough enough votes for impeachment, whip up the votes! Isn't that a part of her job? She's doing the opposite. She continually downplays the amount of votes. She scoffs at her peers who are on board, and intimidates those on the fence into sitting on their hands. A good majority of Democrats across the land are crying out for impeachment. Her job is to represent Democrats.

IMO it looks and will be worse if Democrats do not do their constitutional job to remove a criminal and incompetent President. Or at least try. By impeaching, and losing the Senate vote, Americans will be more informed of Trumps misdeeds and crimes, more informed of the Senate's complicity by their absconding to recognize it, and more aware of the fact that the only way to rid themselves of Trump will be to vote him out. Its a win win win.

[bucolic_frolic]

15. Not really, that could be a loss in the long run

We can remove trump in the 2020 election. If he squeaks in, we can impeach him in 2021 with a stronger Congress. But not if he's been acquitted in 2020 by a premature impeachment.

[LiberalLovinLug]

17. Of course there are risks either way

I would respond to say....there is no garantee we can remove Trump in the next election. I don't know how anyone can assume that. He has defied the odds so far. He has kept up something like a 90% support from Republican voters. Moscow Mitch has openned the doors to Putin's trolls, and homegrown Trump trolls. Add voter suppression laws, gerrymandering approved of by the SCOTUS. All he needs is one minor scandal by a top Democrat (like using the wrong email server) to blow up into a mountain by Fox News and RW radio and internet shows, OR a wag the dog military excursion against some false flag threat a few months before, if all else fails, to put him over the top.

Also trying to start impeachment AFTER you stalled and made excuses not to for two years, AND lost, will be 100x harder to do. The best time was when the Mueller report was just finished or when his letter of disagreement with Barr came out. The fact that a sitting President WOULD be indicted if he were a private citizen, and only escaping charges because of a friendly AG. And every day we go past that prime time will be more difficult. After an election win, Trump will be able to literally go out and shoot someone and get away with it.

The Trump camp will also be able to brag about how iF Democrats had ANYTHING at all on him, they surely would have impeached. And in not doing so, PROVES he is as innocent as a freshly fallen snowfall. And it has been a relentless witch hunt. On top of that, if we haven't at least tried to impeach, it will be a campaign rallying cry that Democrats (like you are advocating) WILL impeach him, if they gain any more power in Washington in 2020. We will be handing him that red meat for his cult followers to make sure they protect their Dear Leader by voting.

And again, acquittal by a sycophantic Senate means nothing. Anyone who follows politics in America over the last 10 years knows how toxicly partisan it is now. No one on the left nor the right expects a vote based on the merits of reasonable, and factual arguments. This is now Reality TV politics. You can connive and back-stab and lie as long as you outwit, outlast, and outplay your way past November 2020.

[CaptainTruth]

9. I am SOOO TIRED of the media's obsession with "DEMOCRATIC CONFLICT!"

They're always trying to portray routine discussion & strategizing as "conflict" because conflict gets clicks.

"Bob wants to go fishing, but Sally has said he should be careful & not fall out of the boat. They're clearly AT ODDS! In CONFLICT! Why doesn't Sally support fishing???"

So, so tired of it. And we're going to get a LOT more of it between now & the election.

[CaptainTruth]

11. If we take out the media hype words like schism, stunned, harsh, etc ...

... along with all the phrasing that's designed to hype CONFLICT, what we're left with in this article is:

1) House Judiciary is proceeding with an impeachment investigation

2) Pelosi is reminding everyone that we don't yet have the House votes to impeach, & she's reassuring vulnerable, concerned members of the caucus that the chamber will be cautious as it approaches impeachment

Don't let the media hype convince you that this somehow equates to a lack of strategy or a great "schism." It doesn't.

[More_Cowbell]

12. Until the House sanctions people who won't testify, it's hard to find evidence for impeachment

Some steps are going to have to be taken on faith, I think.

(Personally, I think that anyone who's read the Mueller report should already be convinced of the case for impeachment. But I won't be surprised if many Democrats in Congress still haven't read it. And I know that most of their constituents haven't.)

[angrychair]

20. +100000

Agree

[stopdiggin]

14. it's about message

And the Speaker has every right to swat a few hands.

"complaining committee aides have advanced the push for ousting President Donald Trump far beyond where the House Democratic Caucus stands."

Since when do committee aides get to dictate the messaging that comes out for the committee, or the party? If I'm Nadler I think I want to insist to my staff that I'm the one does the politics .. you guys do work and agenda of the committee. K?
And beyond that .. yeah, another, "Dems in Disarray" piece. Sigh.

[Nevermypresident]

16. Let's don't mimic trump and the rethugs by claiming any negative news equals fake news.

For instance, what has been reported in the past (re impeachment) has been disputed by either Pelosi or Nadler? Simply put, it's been Pelosi against impeachment, Nadler for it.

Some of the nuances in each story might be inaccurate, overblown, or even incorrect, but the overall thrust of the story is on point, IMO.

How sad and frustrating. How the hell can we expect swing voters to rally around impeachment when our own leadership can't?!?

"If the Party Leadership can't come to agreement on what the ongoing strategy is, that's worth knowing." Spot on Brookynite. No consensus very well could equal a doomed outcome, IMO.

I have been and continue to be very disappointed.

[Fiendish Thingy]

18. Times like these will reveal both cowards and patriots nt

[ut oh]

19. Unfortunately

I've come to believe that part of why the Republicans are this way is because impeachment was 'off the table' when the Bush admin lied us into invading Iraq.

Pelosi basically gave the GOP the green light to do whatever the F they wanted, because there would be no repercussions.

*I lived in San Francisco and voted for Pelosi (everytime for the duration of my 25 years there), so this is not a 'Pelosi hate' posting.

[Scubamatt]

21. So true . . .

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

First rule of any bully or criminal: when you dont push back with consequence, when you dont confront and demand accountability, when you whitewash things for the sake of peace or the “good of the [insert group] - ALL that the bully or criminal learns is that THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT!!! Since the Con’s efforts back in the ‘60s to undermine LBJ’s discussions with Vietnam, to meeting with Iran and interfering with Carter’s negotiations about the hostages, to Iran Contra, to the 2000 election, to the Yellow Cake Uranium lie that manufactured the Iraq war to all the Republican Senators who got a paid trip to Moscow, these people have a legacy of hating our Democracy, disrepecting its institutions and caring only about their own power. And, like Charlie Brown and Lucy, we keep running at the ball they are holding, hoping and trusting that they will play by the rules.

[Kablooie]

23. Oh good. Let's tear ourselves to pieces instead of Trump.

Because attacking Trump might create a negative image.