Pelosi, Schumer need to act on impeachment: Or, get out of the way

House Democrats must – must! – begin an inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Trump. Regardless of political consequence.

And, yes, obviously, there would be political consequence. Because the Senate, under the thumb of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Trump sycophant, will never vote to convict the president, if articles of impeachment were to be presented.

And, McConnell and Trump and their fellow travelers would no doubt use any impeachment review as fodder for political haymaking, but then, they use anything and everything as fodder for political haymaking.

That’s why it should not be a factor that Trump and his minions would use impeachment as a campaign rally counterpoint.

Some things are bigger than politics.

This president is thumbing his nose at the Constitution, at 230 years of political precedent, stonewalling Congress, ignoring the rule of law, packing the judiciary and Justice Department with loyalists, under orders to protect the big man, at all cost.

He needs to held accountable, and at this stage, the only means for enforcing accountability is the threat of ultimate sanction.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer seem more focused on having that ultimate sanction come in the form of an electoral rebuke, at the risk of peril to our constitutional system.

Because this notion ignores the obvious – that Trump is establishing the rationale for ignoring the results of the 2020 election if it doesn’t hand him a second term in the White House.

He has obstructed justice, and continues to do so.

He has burned bridges with our international allies, set off trade wars that threaten to gut important sectors of the American economy.

These are indications that he is under the thumb of foreign powers, or at least willingly sympathetic to their desires to undermine American and Western representative democracy.

Every day that passes with him not being held to account, he gets bolder.

We are thisclose to having Trump and his allies seize extra-constitutional power.

These are the stakes.

So, if the impeachment process further flames political tensions, then, so be it.

If Pelosi and Schumer don’t have the stomach to fight for our continued political independence, then they need to get out of the way.

The American experiment is very much at stake here.

Column by Chris Graham