So, I understand that Republican senator Pat Toomey has proposed a one-for-one witness swap in Trump's impeachment trial. Democrats get to call one witness - supposedly John Bolton - and in return Republicans get to call one witness. I'll give you one guess who that'll be. Even Stephen, right? All in favor of this "proposal" so signify by saying, "I'm a patient at Bellevue."
The very notion that a material witness who was actually in the Oval Office at the time the quid pro quo was being committed is remotely equivalent to a witness whose only crime is that he got a lush job because of his last name is laughable. There is absolutely nothing to this conspiracy theory that Joe Biden forced out a Ukrainian prosecutor because he was investigating his son, Hunter. If anything, the prosecutor in question was corrupt and everyone, including many of the same Republicans who are on board with this outlandish and discredited rumor, wanted him out. And at any rate, that this president is leading the charge against nepotism is laughable, given that both his daughter and son-in-law are currently working for him in various capacities at the White House.
If I'm Chuck Schumer and the House managers, I'd tell Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP senators "thanks, but no thanks." Because here's the thing: in less than two months Bolton's book is going to be released; already the pre-orders on Amazon are through the roof. If the New York Times article is accurate, then Bolton had first-hand knowledge of Trump demanding an investigation into the Bidens as a condition for the $391 million in aid being released. Nixon had the tapes, Trump has Bolton. It's that simple.
The only question that Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Cory Gardner, Thom Tillis, Lemar Alexander and Martha McSally will have to answer is this. How is it that they voted not to hear from a fact witness in an impeachment trial against a sitting president when that fact witness wrote a book detailing what happened? Fox News viewers may care about Hunter Biden, but I can assure you that a majority of the voters in the states where the aforementioned senators hail - with the possible exception of Alexander - could care less. They want to hear from real witnesses with pertinent facts to present, and they will not think too kindly of anyone who prevents them from testifying.
Trump's legal team can scream all they want about process and go down rabbit hole after rabbit hole chasing one conspiracy theory after another. Would you believe that apparently all of this is Obama's fault? Frankly, I was wondering when they were going to get around to that. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if by the the end of their presentation on Tuesday they don't wind up blaming him for the Black Plague.
They even brought in Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz, no doubt for comic relief. Starr, you'll recall, was the special persecutor who did most of the heavy lifting for House Republicans in Bill Clinton's impeachment trial by threatening to throw anyone who didn't cooperate with his investigation into jail. Now suddenly he's a crusader for due process and the American way. And Dershowitz's about face on whether a sitting president needs to have committed an actual crime before he or she can be impeached gives new meaning to the term ambulance chaser.
Deflections and stunts notwithstanding, at no point during the inquiry or trial has there been an inkling of an affirmative defense against the charges contained in the articles of impeachment. We've not heard anyone on Trump's legal team refute the actual merits of the case. And with good reason. They can't. They know it, and any reasonably objective person knows it. That's why 51 percent of the country want this president booted from office. Just wait till Bolton's book drops. That number will go up, I'll bet the ranch on it.
The truth is going to come out, one way or another. McConnell can play hardball with respect to witnesses all he wants; let him. It won't be Democrats who'll be scraping egg of their faces come March, I can assure you. To quote a line out of the movie Red October, "The hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch." Or when not to.
The annals of history are replete with examples of men and women coming face to face wth moments of truth. This is just such a moment. And if there's one thing we know for certain about history, it's that it has a very, very long memory.
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