LIZ SHELD:
“…On Monday, Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler held a hearing with three rabid anti-Trump characters and constitutional scholar, John Malcolm, from Heritage. The main attraction was disgraced, convicted felon John Dean, who was there to say that Trump is just like Nixon and the RUSSIA collusion conspiracy theory is just like Watergate. Everything is just like Watergate to Dean, who made similar claims under the Bush/Cheney administration and against Reagan. Watergate is Dean’s schtick, he’s a one-trick pony. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
At issue is whether the president can exercise his constitutional powers illegally. Since the #resistance activists fancy themselves experts at identifying and prosecuting thought crimes, they are arguing that Trump’s intent was to cover up a crime he didn’t commit and that he wanted the investigation to end to hide his non-existent crime rather than because his political opponents were using it to interfere with his ability to govern. We live in a universe where Hillary Clinton engaged in actual criminal behavior but didn’t intend to so and was given a pass, while Trump did not engage in the accused crime but “intended” to cover up his non-crime so he needs to be removed from office and thrown in jail. No one ever accused these folks of being logical.
One exchange in the hearing worth highlighting is when Rep. Jim Jordan got Dean to admit that he advised Lanny Davis, Michael Cohen’s lawyer, to withhold Cohen’s testimony from the GOP. Sounds kind of obstruction-y.
Remember, the point of these hearings is to put on a show, have selected segments air on television and disseminated on the internet, hope the public turns to support impeachment and then go forward with impeachment. Sadly for Fat Jerry, the NYC helicopter crash directed media coverage away from the Judiciary’s freak show so he didn’t get the intended media coverage…”