“WOEFULLY MISGUIDED OR INTENTIONALLY MALICIOUS”
by Joseph DeMaio, ©2019
(Dec. 28, 2019) — The impeachment hoax continues to metastasize. Screacher of the House Nancy Pelosi (aka The Wretch from San Crapcisco) still insists that she will not transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate until she is satisfied that the “due process” rights denied to President Trump in the House impeachment proceedings will now be recognized and accorded to the Democrats seeking to remove him from office through a “trial” in the Senate. Talk about hypocritical chutzpah.
Both sides continue lobbing verbal (for now) hand grenades at one another. As already noted here and here, there is a good chance that the current impasse could be broken if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided to use a bigger gun than the one brought by Pelosi to the battlefield.
Meanwhile, CNN, that paragon of truth and accuracy in journalism – just kidding, Virginia – recently interviewed one Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House. In the interview, Painter compared Senator McConnell to a member of the Ku Klux Klan, asserting that Senator McConnell “may think he’s a judge impaneling (sic: the correct term is “empaneling”) an all-white jury for a Klansman trial in Mississippi….”
Seriously? Painter needs to get his facts straight before libeling McConnell and, for that matter, the U.S. Senate itself, as being analogous to the KKK. Oh, wait…, that’s right…, my bad… getting the facts straight before opening your mouth disqualifies you from appearing on CNN. Mea culpa.
First, Senator McConnell did not create the “jury.” Instead, the voters in the fifty states created the jury – also known as the U.S. Senate – which body consists of 100 members, not the normal twelve of a civil or criminal jury. Stated otherwise, Mitch McConnell is “stuck” with the jury he was dealt, i.e., 100 senators representing the constituents of their respective 50 states. The “empaneling” of the “jury” could not be accomplished by McConnell even if he wanted to: that was accomplished in 1787 by the Founders.
Second, Painter’s disgusting race-baiting claim that the jury would be “all white” would come as a surprise to Tim Scott, a Republican African-American Senator from South Carolina and to Cory Booker, an African-American Democrat Senator from New Jersey. But since Painter’s image painted McConnell as a racist, CNN jumped at the opportunity to propagate it.
Similarly, Hispanic-American Senators Marco Rubio (R. FL), Ted Cruz (R. TX) and (Bob Menendez) (D. NJ) could dispute Painter’s characterization of the Senate as an “all-white” KKK jury… well, maybe not Menendez. And Senators Kamala Harris (D. CA), of Tamil Indian/Jamaican extraction; Mazie Hirono (D. HI), of Japanese extraction; and Tammy Duckworth (D. IL), of Thai/Chinese/Anglo extraction, could take similar exception. Even Senator Elizabeth Warren might take issue based on her approximate 1/1,024 percentage DNA profile as a purported Cherokee indigenous Native American. White is a color, not an ethnicity.
The point, however, is simply this: Painter is completely wrong – and borderline malevolent – when he tries to paint the body of people who will “judge” President Trump in any “trial” which might take place in the Senate with racist comparisons to the KKK. And that includes lumping in the 45 Democrat and two “Independent” senators who would likely favor removal.
Moreover, Painter’s attempt to liken Mitch McConnell to a KKK Grand Wizard intent on “empaneling” a racially-biased jury is beyond ironic, given that Democrat Senator Robert C. Byrd – one of Senator McConnell’s predecessor Senate Majority Leaders – was actually a card-carrying member of the KKK and for a time served as the “Exalted Cyclops” (i.e., the “Big Dog”) of the Sophia, West Virginia KKK chapter. And if you want to read about what Byrd’s real thoughts once were regarding race and African-Americans – reader alert: much un-PC language – go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd#Ku_Klux_Klan. Byrd, of course, disavowed his “jejune” infatuation with the KKK later in life, but as they say, one cannot un-ring a bell.
Painter’s pandering to CNN is either woefully misguided or intentionally malicious. Either way, he, and similarly-minded people who think that they have some superior knowledge or wisdom regarding how Mitch McConnell should deal with the groundless articles of impeachment now floating in the ether should do better homework before coughing up dumb analogies. As an added benefit, that homework might avoid insightful critiques such as the one you have just finished reading.
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