Commentary
Swamp dweller’s statements show there’s something worse than the swamp!
You all remember candidate Donald J. Trump’s campaign promise: “Mexico will pay for the wall” …no, not that one, this one: “Drain the swamp!” Well, I guess it’s time to see how draining the swamp worked out. (Actually, we could look at how both promises worked out but I’m exercising a little editorial discipline in today’s column.)
With the impeachment vote in the House scheduled for Wednesday, it might be instructive to hear from two of the most prominent swamp dwellers.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – Then
2016 Primaries
“The more you know about Donald Trump, the less likely you are to vote for him. The more you know about his business enterprises, the less successful he looks. The more you know about his political giving, the less Republican he looks.”
“If you nominate Trump and Cruz, I think you get the same outcome. Whether it’s death by being shot or poisoning doesn’t really matter. I don’t think the outcome will be substantially different.”
“He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn’t represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for. … He’s the ISIL man of the year.”
1998 – As House Manager for Clinton Impeachment
“I have a duty far greater than just getting to the next election then. Members of the Senate have said, ‘I understand everything there is about this case, and I won’t vote to impeach the president.’ Please allow the facts to do the talking. … Don’t decide the case before the case’s end.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) – Now
“I am all in. Keep it up, Donald. I’m sure you’re watching.”
“The Trump presidency — it’s like every day is Christmas.You don’t know what’s under the tree. It can be that shotgun you’ve been hoping to get, or it can be a sweater you don’t want. … There’s something under the tree. … It makes it fun.”
As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
“I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I’m not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – Then
2008
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
2016 – Regarding Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland
“The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president. The Senate will continue to observe the ‘Biden rule’ so that the American people have a voice in this momentous decision.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) – Now
In response to the question “Should a Supreme Court justice die next year (2020), what will your position be on filling that spot?”
“Oh, we’d fill it.”
Regarding the impeachment trial in the Senate
There will be “total coordination with the White House counsel” as the impeachment into President Donald Trump presses forward. “Everything I’m coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this, to the extent that we can.”*
*ATB Interpretation: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Trump to be a two-term president.”
It is clear that if Trump has succeeded in “draining the swamp,” that swamp has been replaced with something much more insidious: a gooey, gloppy, gunky morass of quicksand in which our democracy is slowly, but inexorably sinking.
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