Impeach the Motherfucker....

(Kristin Anderson told The Washington Post that Trump put his hand up her skirt to her underwear in the early 1990s. In other words, he did exactly what he bragged he did in the Access Hollywood video a few years later).

This is for cousin Larry, who asked how I managed to write such a brief letter (in today's New York Times). The answer is: I didn't. I got an e-mail from the NYT letters editor, who seems like a very nice lady (she had also called my office, but I was in court all day past 6:00 p.m.), who asked me a series of questions, including whether or not I was ok with the editing she had done. I think she did a pretty good job- when I wrote, the House Judiciary Committee had not yet submitted articles of impeachment, and there was some question as to whether they would add the obstruction charges from the Mueller report regarding the Russia investigation.

Anyway, for Larry, below was the original. I only wish the Democrats would pay attention to the forest, as they seem to be only aware of the tree in front of them. The big picture is getting him out of office, while at the same time letting the country know that his behavior is unacceptable and that he will forever bear the stain of being only the third president impeached-- and the third to survive a trial in the Senate, absent some amazingly stupid and catastrophic move by Trump himself that will put the Republicans in the Senate in an impossible situation. You know, like raping someone on the White House lawn or shooting somebody dead on Fifth Avenue. Of course, he'd still have Jim Jordan and Louie Gomert's votes in the House (!)

"Dear Editor:

The House Democrats are, as usual, about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by wrapping up a narrow impeachment inquiry, impeaching the President on only a scintilla of the crimes he has committed- omitting emoluments violations, campaign finance felonies, ties to the Russian Mafia and money laundering, fraud felonies by Trump University and the Trump Foundation charity, and sex crimes including felonies up to and including rape. Sadly, they will send the Senate impeachment articles based solely on the Ukraine scandal, but possibly including obstruction of justice from the Mueller investigation, where the trial will end quickly and be long forgotten by next November, just as the month long government shut down, the children in cages at the border, and the mass murders committed in the name of anti-immigration hate inspired by Trump, are all distant memories.

Instead, Democrats in the House should take advantage of the spotlight, hold evidentiary hearings lasting months, understanding full well- as Trump did when he sought an announcement of a corruption investigation of Biden, not an actual investigation (which would have revealed no criminal activity or corruption)- that it will be the allegations, not the conviction, that will do in Trump. If there was a month long hearing of just the emoluments violations, followed by another month of woman after woman who was sexually assaulted by Trump- also including those who were illegally paid off with hush money in violation of federal campaign finance laws, Trump will continue to lose his grip, and his re-election campaign will be stymied by his inability to focus on anything other than the impeachment hearings.

Instead of wrapping hearings up quickly before the New Year, Democrats should patiently build a case for impeachment that will include every crime committed by Trump, both before he took office and after, and continue building that case all the way to the Republican convention next August.

Then, send it to a trial in the Senate after the Republicans have made him their nominee. And instead of campaigning for President, as the Democratic nominee will be doing, he'll be defending himself in a trial that will last months, as every single item of evidence is presented to the Senate. Because there is not a chance in hell of getting a conviction in the Senate. But that doesn't mean that Democrats can't get every one of his crimes in the public spotlight during the election campaign."