Yes, nobody reasonable is denying that the President has the authority to use US military aid dollars to pressure the Ukrainian government into investigating a US citizen.

My understanding is that “high crimes” basically refers to English Common Law crimes against the crown, what today would be known as felonies. Misdemeanors at the time did not mean crimes less than felonies in common law. In the context of the constitution and English Common Law, it basically meant abuse of one’s…

I mean, you’re leaving out the facts that:

He did not threaten to withhold the aid. He actually withheld the aid and then asked for a favor that probably violated federal election finance law.

I mean, this seems pretty clearly the kind of abuse of power that the forefathers envisioned when they gave congress the right to impeach the President for “high crimes and misdemeanors”.

I don’t think it is a verbatim transcript. It is basically the notes of someone who was listening in on the call, who clearly is not intending to copy the conversation word-for-word. 

So, that’s not quite right. Asking a foreign power for something of value in relationship to a federal election is illegal, but it is not in and of itself a crime (rather it is a civil offense). It only can potentially become a crime when it is done willfully.

I mean, there are some obvious differences here.

He very well may not have committed a crime. In fact, I would bet a lot of money that he sees zero criminal repercussions for this. If someone believes that he is going to be dragged out of the White House and hauled into a criminal court over this, they are nearly as delusional as all the folks who were chanting lock…

He also thinks that “high crimes and misdemeanors” means that he has to commit a felony and a misdemeanor together to be impeached and that the Supreme Court is going to step in and save him if the House does not charge him with public urination or something like that.

Maybe in the figurative sense of treason, but not in the literal criminal sense.

Impeachment is only a check on the power of the President if the President actually cares about being impeached or if the impeachment results in a guilty verdict.

If you ask a lot of the people who have been screaming to impeach Trump who they think the greatest hero in literary history is, they would unanimously answer: Don Quijote!

I mean, it could drag on for years. Because the committee will ask for documents and the Trump administration will fail to produce them. Then they will subpoena the documents and spend the next 6-36 months fighting in court for the documents. They might decide to not draft any articles until their investigation is…

McConnell may try to bury it. The constitution states that:

An impeachment inquiry does not necessarily result in voting on articles of impeachment on the House floor, although given the evidence, I’m not sure how they would justify reaching a different decision.

Maybe literally, but figuratively, most Republicans (and Democrats) in power would have resigned after one or two of the scandals that seem to be a bi-weekly occurrence with Trump.

Trump seems very paranoid. He always seems to act like the walls are closing in on him and yet, somehow he manages to escape with barely a scratch.

Anything that congress decides is impeachable is impeachable. Impeachment is an unconstrained political power that the congress has to remove any government official other than a fellow congressman or a member of the uniformed military services.

I’m sure this time there will be consequences. . . .