Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Steven Van Zandt), along with fifty, count ‘em, fifty other House Democrats, has a terrific new idea: he’s introduced a bill that would mandate the establishment of a Commission on Presidential Capacity. The earnest, patriotic solons of that Commission would then evaluate, with impeccable and unimpeachable impartiality, the ability of President Donald Trump to continue to exercise the duties of the presidency, and determine whether or not he should be removed from office under the terms of the 25th Amendment.
That amendment says: “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.”
Thus all Raskin’s bill would get for him and his fellow left-of-Stalin Democrats would be JD Vance in the Oval Office, but Raskin and his henchmen seem to think that is their best hope for getting rid of Orange Man Bad once and for all, and so it’s worth a try. The catch here, however, or one of the many catches, is that Trump is not “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”; he’s just not discharging those powers and duties in a way that the socialist cabal likes. Raskin adduces several of Trump’s statements and actions as proof that he is not of sound mind, but if Trump were a far-left Democrat, Raskin and the others would be chuckling over the president’s biting wit and unique sense of humor.
And worst of all for the Democrats, Raskin’s gambit isn’t even anything new. As Matt Margolis pointed out Friday, this new bill is a retread of one Raskin introduced nine years ago: “In June 2017, Rep. Jamie Raskin introduced a resolution to create an independent commission to assess Trump's mental and physical fitness — triggered, reportedly, by his tweets — with more than 20 co-sponsors.”
That didn’t fly, and so Raskin trotted it out again in 2020. Once again, no dice. And so MSNOW, as far left as it is, has had enough. Andy Craig, whom MSNOW identifies as a “senior editor at The UnPopulist,” complains in a Saturday MSNOW opinion piece that “this proposal is misguided on the details, and more importantly, a distraction from what Congress can and should do.”
Ah, finally a new idea from the Trump-hating, America-Last left! What is it, O MSNOW, that Congress can and should do? You better sit down before reading any further. This is a big one. What Congress can and should do about the left’s Emanuel Goldstein, according to one of its flagship opinion-shaping publications, is “impeach Donald Trump and remove him from office.”
Now wait a minute. Is MSNOW really this unreflective and myopic? Why, yes, of course it is. It can hit Raskin for trying a tactic yet again that failed in 2017 and 2020, and then, without a trace of irony, turn around and offer as a much more viable new idea, a gambit that the Democrats tried and failed in 2019 and 2021.
This is an indication of how utterly bereft of ideas, and of ways to counter Trump, the left really is. Not only are leftists abjectly incapable of countering his policies with any clear or coherent alternative, but they’re also unable to come up with any response to him personally other than unadulterated, blind hate.
Related: New York Times Columnist Is Rooting for Iran, Because — Yes, That’s Right
MSNOW is right, however. If the Democrats take the House in November, they will almost certainly impeach Trump for a third time, operating in accord with the old Stalinist principle, “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” They’ll find something to hang on him and go through with the whole charade yet again, even though they will know all the while that they won’t be able to get the vote of two-thirds vote of the senators that is necessary to remove him from office.
They will have signaled their virtue and staked out their bogus claim to righteousness, and to have stood up to the alleged “fascist dictator.” For many of them, that self-righteous posturing, as ridiculous as it is, will be a victory in itself.
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