Nancy Fiddled While Washington Burned

I'll get to the topic implied by the title of this post shortly, but first:

Anyone who has read this blog previously knows that the Curmudgeon's modus operandi is to go directly to source documents, when available, and read those, then draw his own conclusion, rather than relying on the unreliable news media's spin on things.

To that end, I have read Adam Schiff's impeachment report in its entirety, and I've determined that -

Wait a minute. No, I didn't. Of course I didn't. Are you kidding me? Why would I waste my time wading through 300 pages of Schiff's allegations supposedly based on the public hearings that we all had the ability to tune in to? After all, Schiff's spin is even more partisan than CNN's or MSNBC's. I watched the hearings; I heard the testimony. THAT is the source document. The only possible value that could be derived from Schiff's report would be if he had printed it on Charmin Ultra Soft. (Of course, Schiff and the Dems would rather wipe their collective arse on the U.S. Constitution.)

However, I did read the table of contents, and I skimmed key sections of the report on that basis. I also tuned into both CNN and Fox News for their respective takes. Predictably, CNN saw the report as damning, and certain to get Trump removed from office, while Fox saw it as a partisan nothing-burger on the order of the Mueller report.

They're both wrong. From what I've been able to glean, Schiff's report makes the Mueller report look damning. Schiff missed his calling - he can write fantasy as well as Tolkein or Rowling. The edge they have over him is that, after reading their works of fantasy, you could almost bring yourself to believe in wizardry and hobbits.

The most laughably transparent bit of partisanship in the report is the implication of VP Mike Pence. Note that there wasn't one iota of testimony in the hearings to implicate Pence, or anyone else for that matter.

See, this whole thing was cooked up by the Dems because, after the Mueller report failed, and the slate of Dem primary candidates proved to be so wanting that newcomers keep joining the fray, like rats jumping ON a sinking ship, the Dems be like, "OMG! We gotta remove Trump from office, because we can't beat him!"

Then other Dems be like, "OMG! If we remove Trump from office, Pence is President, and voters will be faced with the option of the same policies that have resulted in a strong economy, the lowest minority unemployment in history, serious efforts at border security for the first time in five administrations, a first crack at prison reform, respect for the military and first responders, and good trade deals that don't disadvantage the U.S. - only without the polarizing hyperbole, bad hair and mean tweets! Pence would win by a wider margin than Trump!!"

(I used terms like "be like" and "OMG" in the previous paragraph only because the Democrat Party today takes its cues from the AOCs of the world. Don't worry, I can write better than that. I'm just going for broad bipartisan appeal here.)

So Schiff is hoping we can get Trump impeached and removed, then get Pence impeached and removed, leaving Nancy Pelosi as President. Nancy, power-mad as she is (remember how she lovingly cooed about "the gavel" in 2016?), would undoubtedly demand that the current slate of Dem candidates drop out so that she could run unopposed in the primary. In that scenario, you could pick some random person off the street to run against her and they'd win. Also note that all of this would have to happen pretty fast. Do the Dems not think this stuff through, or are they just making it up as they go along, until they arrive at the next "oh crap" moment?

On to the topic implied by the title. Pelosi is so committed to showing solidarity with Schiff and Nadler as the Judiciary Committee hearings get underway, so stalwart in her leadership of the august body that is the House of Representatives in this somber and reluctant impeachment process, that she's ...

Leaving Washington D.C. to fly (on a fossil fuel-burning jet) to Spain to attend ...

A climate change summit.

Maybe Greta Thunberg can help Nancy solve the problem of air pollution and human feces and spent needles on the sidewalks in her home district. (Nah. Let's just ban some other form of plastic, now that you can't get straws in San Francisco restaurants, nor can you buy bottled water at SFO. But you can buy canned water, and throw the cans in the trash instead of the recycle bins. And you can buy sodas and juice and other beverages in plastic bottles at SFO. Yeah, that'll take care of California's problems.)

What does that tell us? Nancy wants to distance herself from the Schiff-show that is now transitioning to Nadler, so she's leaving Washington - hell, she's leaving the country, for crying out loud. What, is she hoping this thing will blow over before she comes back? Is she sufficiently delusional to believe that Trump will actually be removed from office? Was she the mastermind behind implicating Pence? ("Be sure Pence looks bad too - I want to caress the phone in the Oval Office.")

I find that hard to believe. Even Pelosi doesn't believe this circus is going anywhere. She knew that from the get. So why she caved to AOC, I'll never understand. It'd be the stuff of history books in the future, except that history is now being re-written to fit a narrative. I have to believe that she just wanted to get the hell out of town.

We can only hope that she'll defect. Spain's loss is our gain.