Kremer’s Corner: Life after Impeachment would have been Better

Jerry Kremer

There are many kinds of missed opportunities in life. Failing to buy a hot stock. Taking a pass on a cute little house that is now worth a fortune. Missing a great half-price sale.

These are minor compared to what the Republican members of the U.S. Senate missed, the chance to get rid of President Donald Trump. A “yes” vote on impeachment would have saved these poor souls from having Mr. Trump sitting in the White House until year-end.

I understand party loyalty and from time to time have believed in it, but not always. There is no doubt that Trump is the 800-pound gorilla of the Republican Party.

He doesn’t need that gun that he was going to use to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue to get you. A few dozen tweets could destroy the career of almost any incumbent Republican. And there is no doubt that all of the Republican senators, with the exception of Mitt Romney, are scared stiff of him.

But just think of how much grief the 53 senators could have avoided if they voted to convict the president. Maine Senator Susan Collins, to support her unprincipled vote, asserted, “I think this will have been a lesson to him.” Since making that statement, she has clarified that it wasn’t what she really meant. All of us should feel sorry for her as she faces a tough re-election that may doom her incumbency.

Since the failed impeachment effort, the President has given the Republicans more aggravation than a pepperoni sandwich eaten by some person with a serious stomach ulcer.

As part of his revenge campaign, he fired Lt. Colonel Vindman, a decorated soldier and had him and his brother, escorted out of the White House. He even had the nerve to fire his Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who had donated $1 million to his inaugural celebration. Sondland had the nerve to tell the truth to Congress under oath.

Following the firings, Republican senators went into a circular firing squad and decided that the president had the “right to fire anyone who he felt was disloyal to him.”

One or two of the senators looked unhappy about the whole thing but couldn’t get the words out of their mouth to explain why. Then along comes the latest political disaster of interfering with the operations of the Justice Department by publicly complaining about the upcoming sentencing of Roger Stone, a convicted felon.

The Justice Department is an independent agency whose sworn duty is to protect Americans from crimes of all sorts. They are responsible for protecting our country from terrorists, murderers, crooks and every variety of evil person.

Attorney General William Barr, who is so close to the president that it is rumored that shortly he will go through a name change, so he can officially be a “Trump”.

Reacting to his boss’s tweet, Mr. Barr countermanded the prosecutors who convicted Mr. Stone and recommended that he be given a much lighter prison sentence.

In response to this interference, the four lawyers who handled the case resigned in protest. A few of the Senators, who were able to hold back their nausea, suggested that the president had no right to get involved in the sentencing process and that it should be left to the courts.

Very shortly, Mr. Stone will be sentenced and it is expected that the judge, who doesn’t work for Mr. Trump, will give Stone a longer prison sentence anyway.

This will probably be followed by a presidential pardon, which once again will make the 53 senators hide in the Capitol restroom to avoid making any public comments.

The more you think about it life would have been so much easier for the Republicans had they voted to oust the president.

Cynics say that America would be worse off if Vice President Mike Pence became the president, but being that there are only nine months left to the Trump term, it would be impossible for Mr. Pence to do as much damage as the current president could.

Pence might sign an executive order making the country an all-white nation, but no one would pay attention to him anyway.

So, Mr. McConnell, you missed your chance to make America great again and the months between now and the November election promise to be a real political disaster for your party.

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