If you melt easily, please cover your eyes and ears, or clutch your pearls and gird yourself. Here comes that dirty word:
Fairness.
To a politician, "fairness" is nothing more than a shiv, to be slipped between the ribs with a smile. Politics is never fair. It's not about who deserves what. Politics is the hand, and government is the club in that hand.
Americans are realists. What keeps us going isn't belief in the fairness of
So, I propose that, if nothing else, fairness should rule the televised impeachment hearings run by the chairman of the
He wants to call diplomats to testify about the phone call, to give their impressions of the call, though the transcripts have been released and anyone can read them. Calling the diplomats in isn't about beginning at the beginning. Calling the diplomats is about not beginning at the beginning.
It begins with the "whistleblower."
If the
The first witness should be the so-called "whistleblower," the government employee who brought the complaint to Schiff about that phone call to
And the second witness should be Schiff himself.
There is no way, really, around this. To do otherwise is to admit that all this is about, really, is overturning Trump's 2016 election, which caused the bipartisan
Politicians and media play a role, but there's more to it. The American people play a role too. This is their country. They voted. And Trump was elected.
The impeachment of a president a year out from a presidential election, with all the animosity and chaos that would bring, is serious business.
The worry for
This week's first witnesses shouldn't be diplomats.
The first witness, ideally, would be the "whistleblower" himself.
It was the "whistleblower" who brought the complaint to Schiff and his committee staff, alleging that Trump had committed an outrage during that phone call to the president of
Is the whistleblower a heroic patriot fighting against overwhelming odds to save the republic, as
Who is he? What's his name? Does he have allies on Schiff's committee? Why is he doing this?
When you hold hearings to take out a president, you want to know how it all began, don't you?
You might want to read the fascinating and important piece in RealClearInvestigations by
If you don't want to read it, then please just admit that all you want is just another steaming platter of "Orange Man Bad" analysis.
After the whistleblower is questioned about Brennan and who he met in Schiff's committee and whether he was indeed booted out of the
And Schiff should testify, under oath, about how all this was orchestrated and what he did and whether he told the whole truth.
If the whistleblower is not compelled to testify under oath,
Trump's call to
It's still OK to have different views in this country, isn't it?
They note, correctly, that
That's quid pro quo too, isn't it?
But all that will come at us from
Some of you will think that America doesn't deserve what's happening. But think again.
In the great Western "Unforgiven,"
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it."
The impeachment hearings aren't about what America deserves. This is about what it's always been about: power.
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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who also hosts a radio show on WLS-AM.