[fusion_text]As we hold our collective breath during the last pre-judgment month, we fear many plausible terribles.
Such as Trump’s self-inflicted death from Covid-19 and the “morbid obesity” that Nancy likes to mention – or Melania mercifully assisting him along the lines of a theory advanced about Warren Harding’s wife Florence in “The Strange Death of President Harding” – or Trump ordering Iran nuked as he told Rush Limbaugh he might – or the kidnap, murder and assault on a Trump-disfavored governor and state capital – or a massive spike in Covid cases resulting in hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths and the suppression of conventional voting – OR any other terrible massive October surprise from Trump or the Id. And far surpassing the mere plausibility of each such terrible scenario is the likelihood that one huge bad thing will happen.
Donald Trump & Rush Limbaugh
Comfort here at HL increasingly resides in thinking about Speaker Pelosi and her steady grasp and resolve to see this through and the nation home. Not since Henry Kissinger on August 8, 1974, has the nation relied so heavily on a government officer other than the President, for some semblance of peace of mind.[1] Whether that reliance on Kissinger was well or ill-founded is for another day, but the confidence we express in Pelosi has been earned and consistently rewarded.
The two most recent Pelosi “campaigns” have also been her most skillful and important. Her 25th Amendment initiative is pure genius. She proposes legislation that is invited by Section 4 of that amendment, to give Congress, instead of or in addition to the Vice-President and a majority of the cabinet, the power to declare the President “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and make the Veep “Acting President.”[2] While Pelosi publicly proposes only prospective application of this procedure, that is for Presidents after the imminent election, her proposal is constantly juxtaposed with two things that happen every day. Trump graphically demonstrates the predicate inability to “discharge” his duties and Mike Pence and the Cabinet demonstrate their refusal to pull the plug and discharge theirs under the 25th.
Given the lunacy of the last several weeks, a majority of Americans not only understand that Trump has gone well over the edge but that his cabinet has adopted the Three Monkeys mantra. They also expect, as we observed at the outset, that more and worse will occur in the last bitter and dangerous days of Donald.
The other contemporaneous manifestation of Pelosi skill and steadiness is maintaining the Democrats position on the badly needed next round of economic stimulus. Early on she herded her House caucus into passing a roughly $3 trillion package, while signaling willingness to negotiate whatever Mitch McConnell might get his Senate caucus to pass. McConnell’s group has been all over the place, with a significant number expressing the belief that no more stimulus is needed. And nothing has passed, let alone been put to a vote in the upper house. Nevertheless Pelosi has continued very conspicuous negotiations with Secretary Mnuchin. Meanwhile Trump goes in 24 hours from ordering Mnuchin to cease all negotiations to babbling that he wants a package larger than either the Republicans or the Democrats – and that he also will include a vial of Regeneron’s REGN-COV2 Antibody Cocktail for each American family.
Mitch McConnell & Steve Mnuchin
More than Biden, more than Kamala Harris, more than any other, it is Nancy Pelosi who keeps the electorate focused on the pervasive corruption, incompetence and criminality of Trump’s administration and the Republican controlled Senate, that slavishly condones and facilitates the death and damage it inflicts. For that reason she is HL’s nominee for MVP come November 3, 2020.
[1] After President Nixon announced on August 8 that he would resign at noon the next day, Vice-President Gerald Ford addressed the nation. Virtually his first message was that he had spoken with Secretary of State Kissinger who had agreed to stay in his position.
[2] “Whenever the Vice-President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department [the Cabinet] or of such other body as Congress may by law provide. . .”[/fusion_text]
You call yourself “hopelessly liberal”, but I think you are “reliably sensible”.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Best wishes to you and Jan!