A Question for Elizabeth Warren... [View all]

[louis c]

...since we all know that Impeachment in the House and Conviction in the Senate is more of a political action than a judicial one. And, knowing that we need only a majority in the House, but two thirds in the Senate. And since Senator Warren resides in the Senate, I wonder if the good Senator can list how many Republican Senators she has to sign on to Conviction, knowing what we know now.

As Sen. Warren knows, we need 67 Senators. Asuming (and let me tell you that that's a shaky assumption) that every Democratic Senator votes for Conviction, we need 20 Republicans.

There is a built in excuse for Republican Senators to vote to acquit. That excuse is the proximity to the General Election. By the time we reach the Senate we will have needed months and months of court wrangling over subpoenas. We will need weeks and weeks of hearings in the House. So, when the Senate is ready to vote I anticipate that will be sometime in October or November of this year. We would have already had 3 or 4 Democratic debates and the Iowa Caucuses will by just a few months away. The Republican cry will be "let the people decide." We will certainly not get to 67 votes and the people will be tired of the impeachment spectacle. This issue of presidential corruption, which is a winner for Democrats, will be have outlived its political shelf life.

Instead, let's have oversight hearings. Let's pass legislation in the House to establish our issues for 2020. I like a government option for health care, so you can keep your current insurance or buy into a Medicare like government plan. Let's vote on keeping guns away from people on a terrorist watch list. Let the Republicans in the Senate kill those bills, so we can make vorting Democratic in the election a major issue.

We can still call in Barr, Mueller, McGann, Donnie Jr. (let him take the 5th). But let's not call it Impeachment, just oversight.

So, to my original question, Senator Warren, how many Republican Senators will support Conviction and will every Democratic Senator vote that way?

If you can't name at least 5 Republican Senators for Conviction, than your call for Impeachment, which is a political solution, is just so much grandstanding for the Democratic base that does not, yet, reflect the majority of Americans: let alone two thirds of the public, which is what it took in public polling to convince Republican Senators to support Conviction and Nixon to resign in 1974.

There may or may not be an Impeachment vote. But, rest assured, there will be an election in November 2020.

Every Democrat wants to remove Trump from office. We all can agree on that. So, let's look at the options. Is it more likely that we can obtain 270 electoral votes for the Democratic nominee in November 2020, or garnering 67 Senators for Trump's conviction in November 2019?