I am very close to losing all patience with political commentators, politicians and some here on DU

[StarfishSaver]

61. How do you think impeachment happens?

You're obviously very knowledgeable, so surely you know impeachment doesn't just happen in a vacuum with the House voting on it with no foundation. It occurs after an investigation when the House votes on articles of impeachment recommended by the Judiciary Committee.

And while it's easy to claim that "any competent person could draft dozen of counts stating 'high crimes and misdemeanors' committed by Trump," it's not enough to "state" Trump has committed impeachable offenses. Articles of impeachment must be backed up by serious, solid evidence, not just information we've read in the papers and seen on TV. And although you think what you've learned so far is enough to support impeachment, most people who've seen and heard the same things we have don't agree, so a much stronger case must be built. That's exactly what the Committee is doing now.

The Committee has said repeatedly and every which way from Sunday that it's conducting an investigation to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment. They're methodically gathering evidence and, as part of that investigation, they're in court - several courts, in fact - seeking additional critical testimony and documents to be used against Trump. They may not be putting on a dog and pony show as they do this, which is a good thing since even though that would be entertaining and satisfying to many of us, it won't get them what they need at this point. This stage of an investigation is an unsexy slog, but must be done to get to the part we all want to see.

What else do you think they should get doing that they're not doing? Do you believe they're just supposed to throw together some articles of impeachment now with evidence that's so far been insufficient to convince the public Trump should be impeached and have the measure voted down by a majority of the House (including a majority of the Democrats)? Or should Pelosi not even wait for the Committee to do its work but force a floor vote on impeachment with no articles and have THAT vote lose by a large majority, as well?

People keep demanding impeachment, but now that the House is doing exactly what it needs to do to get to impeachment - which is a process, not a thing - they're attacking them for not having impeached yet. This complaining makes no sense to me. I don't understand why you're not willing to let them do what they need to do to get the result you want instead of criticizing them for not doing something that not only won't get you the result you say you want but will actually result in getting nothing (or get an even worse result - since the last thing we need is to have a Democratic House overwhelmingly reject impeachment a year before the election).