Dems' impeachment bid is hyper-partisan hackery

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted 232-196 to make its impeachment proceedings against President Donald J. Trump legitimate and open rather than unauthorized and closed.

Regardless, Roll Call No. 604 was pure, raw, Democratic hyper-partisanship.

On Oct. 31, 231 Yeas came from Democrats and one Independent.

The Nays included two Democrats and 194 Republicans. Exactly 0 percent of the House members in Trump’s party voted to initiate his impeachment.

This action completely lacked the bipartisanship of the votes to launch the impeachments of presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.

In Roll Call No. 498, on Oct. 8, 1998, the House voted 258-176 to commence Clinton’s impeachment. Among those in favor, 227 were Republicans and 31 were Democrats.

Those opposed were 175 Democrats and one independent.

So, 15 percent of Democrats voted to start impeachment proceedings against Clinton.

"We cannot excuse that kind of misconduct because we happen to belong to the same party as the president or agree with him on issues or feel tragically that the removal of the president from office would be enormously painful for the United States of America," said Rep. Paul McHale, D-Penn.

"Let the president make his case," argued Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. "Give him a chance to clear his name and get back to the job."

Roll Call No. 21 on February 6, 1974, was even more dramatic. The House voted 410-4 to open the impeachment of President Nixon. The Yeas numbered 232 Democrats, 177 Republicans, and one independent. The Nays involved no Democrats and four Republicans. A whopping 98 percent of Republicans voted to initiate impeachment proceedings against their party’s president.

"I think in this way we can best serve the interests of our country and have this inquiry go ahead and be ended as rapidly as possible," said Rep. John Rhodes, R-Ariz.

The House voted 128-47 on Feb. 24, 1868 to originate the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. The Yeas numbered 127 Republicans and one independent. The Nays included 44 Democrats and three independents. Then as now, this was a party-line vote, with 0 percent of Democrats voting to trigger impeachment against their party’s president.

This also was a time of monumental division, fewer than three years after the Civil War ended. Indeed, no representatives of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, or South Carolina voted on impeachment (or anything else), since those states were not re-admitted to the Union until June 1868.

How fitting, then, that Democrat divisiveness broils just as a recent Battleground Poll finds that typical voters think America is 67 percent toward the "edge of a civil war."

The "evidence" that Democrats developed in secret is unlikely to sway Republicans.

• According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the supposed victim of President Trump’s alleged demand that he investigate Joe and Hunter Biden or lose $391 million in American military aid: "There was no pressure or blackmail from the U.S." Zelenskiy added, "I had no idea the military aid was held up" when he and Trump spoke on July 25. How could Zelenskiy feel unthreatened yet be extorted?

• "I asked the president an open-ended question. 'What do you want from Ukraine?'" testified Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union. "He [Trump] said, 'I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelenskiy to do the right thing.' And I said, 'What does that mean?' And he said, 'I want him to do what he ran on.'"

• Former National Security Council aide Tim Morrison listened in on the Trump/Zelensky call. "I want to be clear," Morrison testified Oct. 31. "I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed."

Democrats must present real proof if they expect Republicans to join their relentless anti-Trump wild-goose chase. Conversely, if Democrats want to accomplish nothing with their hard-fought majority, but to tear America in two, without GOP support, then they should keep up the bad work.

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