Failure of Democrats to Apply the Pelosi-Nadler Impeachment Test Drives Trump’s Return to Power

by johndavis, February 18, 2021

Failure of Democrats to Apply the Pelosi-Nadler Impeachment Test Drives Trump’s Return to Power February 17, 2021 Vol. XIV, No. 3 1:13 pm The sinister smirk that said impeachment was abuse of authority The image of that sinister smirk is emblazoned in my mind. It was a we-finally-got-him smirk by one of the US House
[More…]

Failure of Democrats to Apply the Pelosi-Nadler Impeachment Test Drives Trump’s Return to Power

February 17, 2021 Vol. XIV, No. 3 1:13 pm

The sinister smirk that said impeachment was abuse of authority

The image of that sinister smirk is emblazoned in my mind. It was a we-finally-got-him smirk by one of the US House impeachment managers as they walked ceremoniously past the TV crews in the Capitol Rotunda to deliver the Articles of Impeachment to the US Senate.

It was a smirk that confirmed what I had grown to believe, that the House majority had weaponized their impeachment authority for the illegitimate political purpose of destroying the President and his party. The President was Bill Clinton. The impeachment manager behind the sinister smirk was Rep. Lindsey Graham, a two-term Republican House member from South Carolina.

Why had I concluded that President Bill Clinton’s impeachment was illegitimate? Because Special Prosecutor Ken Starr’s investigation meandered for four years from one dead-end scandal to another, spending $70 million, before Bill Clinton’s infamous lie about his affair with a White House intern. Finally, Starr had a hook to hang an impeachment on. Perjury about an affair. Impeach him!

Can you imagine how many Presidents would have been impeached over lying about an affair?

In 1998, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a 58-year-old Democrat from California, said on the eve of the House vote on Articles of Impeachment, “We are here today because the Republicans in the House are paralyzed with hatred of President Clinton.” Pelosi argued that the real reason Speaker Newt Gingrich and the GOP Caucus were impeaching Clinton was partisan revenge, an election year political gambit.

Wait. Was Pelosi accusing the Republican caucus of abusing their impeachment authority for political retribution and tactical advantage? If true, how would you ever know?

The answer to that question came from Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-NY, during the 1998 impeachment debate. “There must never be a narrowly voted impeachment or an impeachment supported by one of our major political parties and opposed by the other.”

So, using Rep. Nadler’s test, was there bipartisan support in 1998 for impeaching President Clinton for perjuring himself about an affair? Of 228 “Yea” votes, 223 were Republicans, 5 were Democrats.

Pelosi and Nadler were right in their assessment of the impeachment of President Clinton. The motive was political because it was a “narrowly voted impeachment” supported by only one party.

Now you know why I have never forgotten Rep. Lindsay Graham’s “we finally got him” smirk.

Did Trump’s first impeachment pass the Pelosi-Nadler test?

Applying the 1998 Pelosi-Nadler test using bipartisanship to establish the legitimacy of an impeachment against a US President, let’s examine the Trump impeachments led by Speaker Pelosi.

First, it is important to remember that Pelosi was adamantly against impeaching President Trump early on. During an interview with the Washington Post in March 2019, Pelosi said, “Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path.”

As to why she would change her mind on impeaching President Trump without bipartisan support, Pelosi told the Washington Post that the country was strong enough to withstand one Trump term, “But maybe not two [Trump] terms. So we have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

In May 2019, Rep. Al Green, D-TX, confirmed the Democrats’ motive for impeaching President Trump when he said, “I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this president, he will get re-elected.”

In November 2019, two House Committees, Intelligence and Judiciary, led by Democrats, heard allegations of impeachable offenses committed by President Trump during a phone call with the Ukrainian president. The committees voted to proceed with impeachment with “0” bipartisan votes.

On December 18, 2019, not one of the 198 Republican members of the US House was persuaded to vote for the articles of impeachment against President Trump. Zero “0” bipartisan votes.

So, with “0” bipartisan support in the House, how could Democrats expect to persuade 20 Republicans in the US Senate to vote to convict? They didn’t. Conviction was never the goal. On December 20, 2019, Pelosi admitted as much in an AP interview, “He just got impeached. He’ll be impeached forever. No matter what the Senate does.”

The impeachment of President Trump in 2019 failed the Pelosi-Nadler test using bipartisanship for establishing the legitimacy of an impeachment. It was a “narrowly voted impeachment” supported by only one party. Democrats hated Trump. Impeachment was partisan vengeance.

Did Trump’s second impeachment pass the Pelosi-Nadler test?

How about the second impeachment of President Trump, did it pass the Pelosi-Nadler test?

The articles of impeachment alleged President Trump incited an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Did Democrats really believe they could get 17 Republican Senators, 34% of the GOP Caucus, to vote guilty, when only 5% of the GOP House Caucus supported impeachment?

Applying the Pelosi-Nadler test using bipartisan support to establish the legitimacy of the impeachment of President Trump for incitement of insurrection, of the 232 “Yea” votes, 222 were Democrats, 10 were Republicans. The impeachment vote clearly failed the Pelosi-Nadler test because it was a “narrowly voted impeachment” supported almost entirely by one party (Democrats 96%; Republicans 4%).

Before the second impeachment, Speaker Pelosi had Trump on the mat. She had played a key role in helping former Vice President Joe Biden defeat Trump in 2020. Trump was down for the count.

But now, because Speaker Pelosi proceeded with the impeachment of President Trump for incitement of insurrection without passing the Pelosi-Nadler test, everyone knows the real motive was revenge. Revenge drove Pelosi to impeach Trump twice. Revenge is why she lost twice.

Speaker Pelosi’s hatred of Trump is now aiding his political recovery.

New poll shows Trump’s standing among GOP on the rise

A new Morning Consult poll released yesterday, Tuesday, February 16, 2021, is titled, Trump Emerges From Impeachment Trial With Sturdy Backing From GOP Voters. The poll shows that 54% of GOP voters would support Trump in a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary.

59% of GOP voters said Trump should play a “major role” in the Republican Party going forward, up 18 points since a Jan. 6-7 survey.
The share of Republicans who said Trump is at least somewhat responsible for the events of Jan. 6 is down 14 points, to 27%, from early January.

In 1998, House Republicans learned a valuable political lesson about impeachment. If revenge is your motive, voters will turn on you. The day after the GOP House passed the Articles of Impeachment against President Clinton, his “favorability” soared to 72%!

The failure of Democrats to apply the 1998 Pelosi-Nadler test using bipartisanship to measure the legitimacy of articles of impeachment is now driving former President Trump’s return to power.