December 19, 2019

Impeachment Causing a Blue Christmas? Let’s Get Real
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, has cast the Democrats as the Grinch, complaining that they impeached the president just “hours before Christmas” (123 hours, to be exact). Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been spending the past few days broadcasting to the world how “sad” she is that impeachment has proved necessary, and narrowcasting to her Democratic colleagues how sad they should take care to look as well. As polarizing as the impeachment of Donald Trump has been, it seems to have brought the parties together in professions of gloom.Many of the worries that politicians and the press have brought up are, happily, overblown.Start with the notion that impeaching Trump will “tear our country apart,” as Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii said in September. We heard the same lament during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Impeachment was bitterly divisive back then, as it is now. Yet are 1998 and 1999 remembered as bleak years in American history? No: The public was more satisfied with the state of the country than before or afterward, which is part of why President Bill Clinton wasn’t removed from office.Republicans have been warning that impeachment will cause a backlash that costs House Democrats many seats in the 2020 election. Concern about that prospect led Pelosi to resist it until the Ukraine controversy arose and then to handle it quickly. Again, the Clinton precedent counsels against overreaction. That impeachment was less popular than the current one, and many more of the Congress members who voted for it represented seats that had voted for the president in the previous election. Predictions of Republican doom filled the airwaves. The party ended up losing only two seats in the House in the next election.Republicans are also warning, as Democrats did 20 years ago, that impeachment will become routine. The next Democratic president serving alongside a Republican House will get impeached, too. That prediction may prove true. And if presidents were to be removed for frivolous reasons, it would be profoundly destabilizing. But that danger seems remote, because removal requires both a majority of votes in the House and two-thirds of the Senate. Impeachment has caused the departure of only one president in our history, when Richard Nixon resigned to preempt his removal.Perhaps, then, what we should really worry about is the weakening of the impeachment power through overuse? Will future presidents feel less constrained by the threat of impeachment and thus more inclined to abuse their power? That concern, too, has been raised here and there. But it’s not clear that fear of being removed from office has done a lot to restraint presidents before now. Surely presidents, even the thickest of them, have noticed that the removal power has never been used and that a two-thirds Senate majority for removal is nearly impossible to assemble.Vice President Mike Pence has called impeachment “a complete waste of time,” keeping Congress from doing the people’s work. Journalists have speculated that impeachment would cause “political paralysis.” To evaluate this claim, we need to have a realistic baseline of what would have happened in the absence of impeachment. For good or ill, Congress and the president were not enacting a lot of major laws before impeachment began. Since it did, Congress has agreed on a budget, and the administration and China have hit pause on their trade war. A refurbished North American Free Trade Agreement is on the verge of getting through Congress. Not only has impeachment not stopped Washington from getting anything done, it has probably contributed to the passage of the trade deal, because some House Democrats want to demonstrate they can work with the president on discrete issues even while trying to remove him from office.In September, Trump tweeted that “the markets would crash” if Democrats opened an impeachment inquiry. Instead, stocks have continued to rise. Unemployment has kept falling, too. There is no sign that impeachment is disrupting the economy. It didn’t cause any slowdown two decades ago, either.There is, of course, a great deal that is disheartening about the spectacle of impeachment. But most of it has to do with the long-running decay of our institutions and the failure of our officials to fulfill their responsibilities. This moment ought to be an opportunity to reflect on how we can do better. What it is not is a cataclysm. Christmas can go on as scheduled.To contact the author of this story: Ramesh Ponnuru at rponnuru@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Stacey Shick at sshick@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is a senior editor at National Review, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and contributor to CBS News.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Related Stories
Latest News
Top news around the world
Academy Awards

‘Oppenheimer’ Reigns at Oscars With Seven Wins, Including Best Picture and Director

Get the latest news about the 2024 Oscars, including nominations, winners, predictions and red carpet fashion at 96th Academy Awards

Around the World

Politic
Mary Trump 'energized' as uncle 'Donald's campaign spirals into chaos'
Mar 29, 2024
Donald Trump's campaign is in chaos, and his niece says she's energized.Mary Trump, the niece of the former president and a psychologist by trade, has previously been critical of her uncle.On Thursday, she said her uncle's failures are adding up.ALSO READ: A neuroscientist reveals how Trump and Biden's cognitive impairments are different"As the RNC’s fundraising falters and Donald’s campaign spirals into chaos, I am energized!" she said in a Substack post.She then continued:"When Donald dominates the news cycle, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed. Every bad headline has a negative impact. But then I remember something crucial: There’s usually more to the story than meets the eye. I’m determined to cut through the media noise and share with you all the good that happened this week. These are the headlines we need to remain energized and hopeful that the media largely ignored."Mary Trump goes on to highlight President Joe Biden's recent fundraising hauls."President Biden’s $155 million+ war chest has just received another turbo boost, bringing the total of cash on hand to at least $180 million. (By comparison, between his campaign and the RNC, Donald barely has over $50 million — and continues to drain the accounts to cover his absolutely staggering legal expenses)," she wrote. "This is a development that could significantly increase Biden’s ability to influence the narrative in crucial swing states."This, she says, also tells us a lot about voter excitement for Biden."While critics have expressed doubts about the degree to which the Democratic base is fired up as compared to 2020, today’s $25 million fundraiser, raised with donations ranging from $250 to $500,000, should put any doubts to rest — yes, we are absolutely behind President Biden and Vice President Harris and we’re in this fight until the end," she wrote.Read the full post here.
READ MORE
Celebrity News

> Latest News in Media

Watch It
Ruby Franke’s Husband REVEALS Alleged Rules He Had to Follow at Home | E! News
March 28, 2024
_mU-3lE2QwI
#KenanThompson speaks out following the #QuietonSet documentary. (🎥: Tamron Hall Show) #shorts
March 28, 2024
8AGP-Gfw_Ek
King Charles Shares "Great Sadness" at Missing Royal Appearance | E! News
March 28, 2024
lyizFqf1kQY
Martha Reeves Walk of Fame Ceremony
March 27, 2024
QzyezumEPtQ
Eminem, 50 Cent & Snoop Dogg Present Dr. Dre with a Star on the Walk of Fame
March 19, 2024
4bNLs1hxVp8
Opening Remarks for the Variety Summit October 20th, 2023 Jay Penske
March 18, 2024
c6Z707iLq8E
Montell Jordan Dishes On Young MC Wedding, 'This Is How Date Night' Plans | TMZ
March 28, 2024
G3SMExj-qio
Davina Potratz Says TV Not Helping 'Selling Sunset' Relationship Woes | TMZ
March 28, 2024
D4piy4GNm4k
Logan Paul Rips Graham Bensinger Over Documentary, You Promised Apple TV+ | TMZ Live
March 28, 2024
NiSDpZhZklQ
Prince William pinned royal medal to Spice Girl Mel B’s boobs #shorts
March 28, 2024
O1cQ0UW9pco
Jennifer Garner shares ‘hard’ part of raising her and Ben Affleck’s kids
March 28, 2024
3Q7mZaVUdgc
50 Cent's ex Daphne Joy named as an alleged sex worker in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs lawsuit #shorts
March 28, 2024
yhLFI8DG9rM
TV Schedule
Late Night Show
Watch the latest shows of U.S. top comedians

Sports

Latest sport results, news, videos, interviews and comments
Latest Events
28
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
PSG W - Hacken W
28
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
Barcelona W - SK Brann W
27
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
Chelsea W - Ajax W
27
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Playoffs - Women
Lyon W - SL Benfica W
17
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Atletico Madrid - Barcelona
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester United - Liverpool
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Inter Milan - Napoli
17
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt
17
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Chelsea - Leicester City
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Roma - Sassuolo
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Verona - AC Milan
17
Mar
ITALY: Serie A
Juventus - Genoa
16
Mar
GERMANY: Bundesliga
Darmstadt - Bayern Munich
16
Mar
ENGLAND: FA Cup
Manchester City - Newcastle United
16
Mar
ENGLAND: Premier League
Fulham - Tottenham Hotspur
16
Mar
SPAIN: La Liga
Osasuna - Real Madrid
13
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Atletico Madrid - Inter Milan
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Barcelona - Napoli
12
Mar
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 1/8 Final
Arsenal - Porto
Find us on Instagram
at @feedimo to stay up to date with the latest.
Featured Video You Might Like
zWJ3MxW_HWA L1eLanNeZKg i1XRgbyUtOo -g9Qziqbif8 0vmRhiLHE2U JFCZUoa6MYE UfN5PCF5EUo 2PV55f3-UAg W3y9zuI_F64 -7qCxIccihU pQ9gcOoH9R8 g5MRDEXRk4k
Copyright © 2020 Feedimo. All Rights Reserved.