The Impeachment Chronicles

This week brought us the public portion of the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.  After having their selected State Department employees (past and present) pass secretly through their SCIF bunker in rehearsal of their expose routines, the Democrats figured that their star Trump critics were ready for prime time.  For me, the only suspense present in the proceedings was waiting for that moment when Adam Schiff’s eyes would actually pop out of his head onto the dais before him.  How can those orbs remain in his head when obviously 75 percent of them are exposed outside of their sockets?  That…is…amazing; a seeming physical impossibility.

In the past, I have shared my views on the super-inflated egos of U.S. Senators and how each of them believes they would be far superior to whoever might be sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office.  After reading and watching these State Department employees bitch and whine and moan and groan and lecture us all in condescending fashion; I honestly think this bunch of self-aggrandizing marshmallows can give the Senators a good run for their money in the arena of self-importance combat.  Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is a perfect example of what I am writing about.  It is offensive to me that she somehow thinks that her Princeton degree and years of government paychecks entitle her to openly challenge the wishes of the President she serves and independently pursue a foreign policy that conforms with her private agenda, rather than the one formulated by her employer.

Ms. Yovanovitch had served for over 30 years in the State Department’s diplomatic corps before her unceremonious termination as Ukrainian Ambassador at the pleasure of President Trump.  It goes without saying that every…single…incoming…President typically terminates sitting Ambassadors and replaces them with their own selected candidates; many times using those positions as rewards for financial campaign support.  As with all patronage appointments, we can only hope that the selected candidates have a minimum level of competence to go along with their deep pockets.  If you read the transcript of Ms. Yovanovitch’s testimony: https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776075849/read-former-ukraine-ambassador-yovanovitchs-testimony-to-congress, it is abundantly clear that her feelings are extremely bruised over the manner in which she was fired and she is equating herself and her fate with some fairly noble individuals and events.  Notwithstanding the real value of her service and good intentions, her narcissistic sense of self-importance is rather breath-taking. I suppose that when you are the top U.S. official at residence in a foreign land, you begin to take on an air of independence and nobility that exceeds reality.  Perhaps this is similar to what we see with the spoiled celebrity athletes who are put upon a throne at an early age and never really grasp the concept of commonality with the rest of humankind.  Like many who reside in the privileged bubble with her, Ms. Yovanovitch has forgotten exactly who is the supervisor and who is the subordinate.

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You can use any phrase you like to describe it, but anyone who denies the existence of Deep State entities in our government is naïve to the extreme.   Every single Department in our government has an enclave of career employees who persevere through multiple Presidents and Administrations.  This ongoing core group of experienced and trained government employees is critical to the ongoing function of our federal bureaucracy; but it is a dangerously double-edged sword.  When certain individuals in positions of influence and authority remain in those jobs for decades, they tend to expand the concepts of their own wisdom and knowledge in an autonomous fashion and gradually fail to respect the will of those elected officials who have been selected by the voters to supervise them.  They become inappropriately safe and secure in their own ideas and opinions; utilizing their years of experience to game the system in ways that emphasizes their agendas at the expense of the President, Congress, and appointed heads of state. 

We have seen this reality play out repeatedly over the history of our nation; but never to the extent of the present drama we are witnessing in the Trump Administration.  From the Department of Justice to the State Department to the Defense Department and the many other Departments that make up our government, entrenched individuals have both independently and collectively embarked upon actions to massage, ignore, or blatantly subvert the will of the Trump Administration.  This is wrong.  It was wrong when the President was Obama; it was wrong when the President was Bush; it is wrong when the President is Trump.  The solution to public displeasure with a President’s policy initiatives is the ballot box.  Federal political (patronage) appointees serve at the pleasure of our President and that is as it should be.  When a President is elected, they have every right to select those who share their philosophy of government to serve them in the quest to implement their ideals and agenda.  We as voters can only hope and expect that those selected for these positions of power and influence, who have immense impact on our daily lives, are capable of performing their jobs in an honest and reliable manner.  We may not agree with what their policies are; but they have earned the legitimate opportunity to deliver on the promises they made when they campaigned for the office.

Just as Ms. Yovanovitch is the classic example of the diplomatic snowflake who has obviously lost her sense of exactly how she fits into the machine; so is former CIA Director John Brennan a similar example of the same syndrome in the Department of Justice.  But Brennan is so much more dangerous: https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/11/15/the_brennan_dossier_all_about_a_prime_mover_of_russiagate_121098.html .  The upcoming reports of DOJ Inspector General Horowitz and U.S. Attorney John Durham will deal with Brennan.  As for Yovanovitch, John Soloman does a great job of posing the questions that she should address: https://johnsolomonreports.com/the-15-essential-questions-for-marie-yovanovitch-americas-former-ambassador-to-ukraine/ . 

If you have interest in the House impeachment inquiry, you owe it to yourself to read the transcripts of the witnesses.  And don’t stop there…read the transcripts of the complaint and the second phone call in question (links available in prior posts).  In fact, read the transcript of the first phone call between Trump and Zelensky: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/11/second-phone-call-even-more-innocent-than-the-first.php .  At some point in this process, regardless of your political leanings and your opinions of President Trump, the question must be posed: THIS is sufficient to overturn the legitimate election of an American President?