I was planning a rant about the Ukraine scandal this morning, but the Atlantic article “If This Isn’t Impeachable, Nothing Is” says everything I was going to say and more. I can’t even pull a quote; just please go read it and then come back and enjoy the anagram.

So basically, the timeline is this:

1. The Mueller Report was released. It detailed how the Russians interfered in the 2016 election, how the Trump campaign was aware of and welcomed that help, and how President Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation into his involvement no fewer than ten times.
2. The Republicans chose to put party over country and the Democrats decided to cower in the corner, and the President was not held accountable in any way for his actions.
3. The President, having been emboldened by his perceived invincibility, explicitly tried to strong-arm a foreign power to interfere in the 2020 election on his behalf by manufacturing fake evidence of wrongdoing by his political opposition.

It is now incumbent upon Congress to impeach. Failing to do so at this point is a dereliction of duty. It is no longer enough to say that we can’t do it because the Senate won’t convict. I think Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it best (regarding calls for impeachment made before this particular scandal broke):

I want to see every Republican go on the record and knowingly vote against impeachment of this president, knowing his corruption, having it on the record so that they can have that stain on their careers for the rest of their lives, because this is outrageous to protect the amount of lawlessness and corruption coming out of this presidency.

On the other hand, if this President is still not held accountable, even for something as outrageous as this, what else will he then feel entitled to do? At some point, we have to stop blaming him for all of this, if the rest of us are willing to just sit back and allow it all to happen.

From Timon of Athens:

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Congress must hold him in, as conmen.

Bye.