CitizenBBN
12-05-2019, 08:53 PM
Schiff's report released phone records of his political enemies, for no apparent reason. It included phone calls with Rep. Nunes, a reporter, and others.
Those people have no ties to the investigation but since they talked to Guiliani Schiff allowed their phone call records to be published.
Since Nunes is clearly a political enemy of Schiff, is this now an impeachable abuse of power? They could have left those calls out, it has nothing to do with impeachment, but he put them in to discredit Nunes.
It was clearly a political move, and was a use of his chairmanship to make it happen. Isn't that an abuse?
That's why this standard for impeachment is impossibly low. The truth is that elected officials use their power to discredit political opponents all the time. They certainly use their bully pulpit, but Congress and the DOJ routinely selectively investigate people and entities to suit their political goals. No Democratic Congress was going to touch Fast and Furious, and likewise no GOP congress would have had Iran Contra hearings. It's ALL POLITICAL. If we're going to start tossing politicians out of office for selectively using investigations, subpoenas, etc. we need to throw them all out.
And BTW I'm GREAT with that, but be consistent. You can't support tossing out an elected PResident b/c of what appears like him using his position to hurt a political foe (and it's arguable Biden was a foe at the time), and then be OK that the guy leading that impeachment just did the same thing, using his position of authority to undermine a political foe with his subpoena power.
Those people have no ties to the investigation but since they talked to Guiliani Schiff allowed their phone call records to be published.
Since Nunes is clearly a political enemy of Schiff, is this now an impeachable abuse of power? They could have left those calls out, it has nothing to do with impeachment, but he put them in to discredit Nunes.
It was clearly a political move, and was a use of his chairmanship to make it happen. Isn't that an abuse?
That's why this standard for impeachment is impossibly low. The truth is that elected officials use their power to discredit political opponents all the time. They certainly use their bully pulpit, but Congress and the DOJ routinely selectively investigate people and entities to suit their political goals. No Democratic Congress was going to touch Fast and Furious, and likewise no GOP congress would have had Iran Contra hearings. It's ALL POLITICAL. If we're going to start tossing politicians out of office for selectively using investigations, subpoenas, etc. we need to throw them all out.
And BTW I'm GREAT with that, but be consistent. You can't support tossing out an elected PResident b/c of what appears like him using his position to hurt a political foe (and it's arguable Biden was a foe at the time), and then be OK that the guy leading that impeachment just did the same thing, using his position of authority to undermine a political foe with his subpoena power.