Schiff and Pelosi strike the right tone

After watching the press conference yesterday with Rep. Adam Schiff and Speaker Pelosi, I became a believer that things are getting serious. And not only did the press conference strike the right tone, but it made me realize that we need more of them.

I’ve been critical of Democratic leadership in recent days, and rightly so in my view. More often than not, when compared to President Trump’s bombastic and confrontational style, they’ve appeared weak and on the defensive. With the White House in pure panic mode, though, it seems the Democrats have found their voice. And it couldn’t have come at a more convenient time.

At times, both Pelosi and Schiff have gone out of their way not to appear partisan. They’ve always struck a cautionary tone when it comes to the prospect of impeachment. But after yesterday, it seems that the gloves are officially off. When you hear Schiff saying, in his usual soft and thoughtful voice, “Were not fooling around,” you know things have changed.

I also realize that if the Democrats do not stay on the offensive, the momentum for impeachment will dissipate faster than a Trump tarmac ‘press conference.’ Why? Because what you see in front of us at the moment is a president in pure narcissistic meltdown. He’s openly calling for not only Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, but now he’s even included China. Yes, the same China that strictly controls the internet and imprisons political dissidents. What could go wrong?

This lunacy is the strategy; always deflect, point the narrative in another direction, and accuse someone else of doing what you do. Then, make sure the right-wing echo chamber follows suit, spreading false conspiracy theories and convincing the main-stream media that there is a there, there. The only way to counteract such shenanigans is to keep up the pressure and call the president out. Hell, if it means on an hourly basis, so be it.

I do worry that the Democrats may not be up to the job. Call me skeptical, and I’ll gladly accept that characterization. But now isn’t the time for passivity or capitulation. As I’ve said, you can only defeat a bully by confronting them. In this case, the facts are on the Democrats’ side. We have him openly admitting asking the Ukrainians for help. And now, in typical Trump fashion, he doubles down and invites another country to join in on the scheme.

If Democrats lose the momentum, they have nobody to blame but themselves. Yesterday’s press conference is a definite step in the right direction. And Pelosi signaling for Schiff to take the lead in the impeachment inquiry is a smart move as well. He comes across as credible, intelligent, and orderly; in other words, the complete opposite of Trump. Others, such as Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, are also excellent at this. I’ve seen them both in front of the media the last twenty-four hours, stating the facts and arguing the seriousness of this matter.

Again, more of this, please.

Lastly, as I said above, Speaker Pelosi was on point yesterday. It was all about the rule of law and our Constitution. I’ll disagree with her slightly on one comment that she made. And that was her alluding to the guardrails our Founders put into the Constitution. Pelosi mentioned that they could never have imagined a president continuously ramming those guardrails like the current president is doing.

I beg to differ. It’s called impeachment.