Today I helped lead a community voter empowerment program for African-American grassroots

community leaders and residents.

Not one person brought up or was interested in talking about impeachment. They also didn't spend much time talking about the Democratic primaries.

They were interested in voter registration laws, the voting process, overcoming voter suppression, learning how to talk to people about why voting matters, better understanding how Congress works, issues such as judicial nominations, healthcare and education.

Most of them said that, while they are actively engaged in their communities, they don't use Twitter and don't participate in online discussion boards. Only a handful of people - nearly all of the Millennials - said they use social media for political engagement, but even they do most of their engagement locally and face-to-face.

A reminder to me that the views on DU and Twitter, while interesting and informative, don't necessarily mirror the real world.

Get down with your bad self, Kamala!

Poll: Where does your Member of Congress stand on impeachment?

Condolences to Rep. James Clyburn on the loss of his wife Emily

She was a brilliant, sweet, strong, beautiful woman.

Jim Clyburn often drew laughs when he said that he was probably the only Member of Congress who'd met his wife in jail. He wasn't joking. They met after being arrested and jailed protesting segregation in South Carolina as college students. They were married for 58 years.

May this lovely woman rest in peace. Condolences to Rep. Clyburn.

https://amp.thestate.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article235062782.html?__twitter_impression=true

Zerlina Maxwell nails it, once again

Does anyone here actually know anyone who's not in favor of impeachment now

but will change their minds and support it if they hear Nancy Pelosi say the House Judiciary Committee is conducting an official impeachment inquiry?

I am sick and tired of listening to pundits, commentators and, yes, DUers attacking Democrats

for supposedly not performing exactly as they think they should while not saying a WORD of criticism about the Republicans they're having to put up with.

Since yesterday's hearing (and before, but they've really ratcheted it up in the last 30 hours) these people have done little but lambaste Democrats, who are busting their butts trying to stay focused, save this country, while trying to both ignore and dodge incoming fire, hostile and "friendly," but have given the Republicans a complete pass. I haven't seen anyone comment more than in passing about the Republicans' despicable behavior, much less show any footage of it. Anyone who didn't watch the hearing live and is getting their information from the news channels or online discussion boards would be forgiven for assuming that only Lewandowski and committee Democrats participated in the hearing while not a single Republican was anywhere to be found.

And I don't buy the "well, everyone already knows the Republicans are terrible so there's no point talking about them" excuse. That's bullshit. If it's worth talking nonstop about what the Democrats are and aren't doing and why it's all wrong, it's certainly worth talking about what the Republicans are doing, especially since it's the Republicans' behavior that the Democrats are fighting mightily to deal with.

I'm really disgusted by this.

I think I'll go watch Ken Burns' country music documentary for awhile ...

Please stop criticizing Nadler for not arresting Lewandowski on the spot yesterday

Neither the Judiciary Committee chairman nor Congress, as a whole, has the power to arrest anyone "on the spot," even under their inherent contempt authority.

There's a procedure that must be followed.

Among other things, the committee has to first vote to recommend he be held in contempt. That's usually done in markup, a proceeding that requires several days notice and that must be postponed an additional week if the minority requests.
If the measure passes, it is sent to the floor for a full House vote.

It may be possible for the Committee to vote to hold him in contempt during the hearing without a markup and floor vote, but I'm not aware of any process for doing that.

Once Congress officially cites the witness for contempt. At that point, there are three different avenues that can be taken for enforcement:

1) refer the citation to the US Attorney for DC and ask them to enforce the citation with an arrest or prosecution. Since the US Attorney reports to the Attorney General, good luck with that;

2) go to court to ask it to enforce the contempt citation; or

3) use its Inherent Contempt power and order Lewandowski to be arrested or fined.

But as soon as that order is issued, Lewandowski's due process rights kick in and he can ask a court to determine if the arrest is valid. Upon receiving Lewandowski's petition, the court would likely issue a preliminary injunction, prohibiting the Sergeant-at-Arms from arresting him and blocking any effort to exact a fine, pending resolution of the case.

And, assuming the court eventually rules that Congress can arrest him, it's not clear how that arrest would actually be carried out since, among other things, it hasn't never been established whether the Sergeant-at-Arms jurisdiction extends beyond Capitol grounds.

The whole "use their contempt authority to arrest him on spot" demand has no basis in law or procedure.

Notice how the media spends all it's time critiquing how the Democrats respond to the GOP madness

but rarely if ever call out the Republicans for creating the madness?

The Republicans behaved like damned fools yesterday and, contrary to the media narrative, the Democrats handled them as well as they could considering it's virtually impossible to rein in anyone who doesn't play by the rules and over whom you have no power or jurisdiction.

The media - and some Democrats here and elsewhere - keep attacking the Democrats for not getting "tougher" on the Republicans, for not doing more to stop their foolishness. But what exactly are they supposed to do within the parameters of the power they have?

Most of the answers I've heard to these questions treat this venue as if it's a courtroom with Nadler as the presiding judge. If that were the case, yes, Nadler could crack the whip and shut these fools down in an instant. But it's not and he isn't and he can't. these are all Members of Congress, his peers, over whom he has very little control, over them, even as chair of the committee. He can't hold them in contempt, fine them or throw them in jail.

So when analyzing these proceedings, the media needs to report on them as they are, not as they think they should be. they need to stop expecting the Democrats to do the impossible. And they need to start holding the Republicans accountable for their behavior

Democrats reminded me of the country boy who shows up in the big city pool hall

claiming to not know anything about the game but once he gets the stakes high enough open his case and pulls out his two-piece custom-made pearl-handled monogram pool cue and proceeds to run table.

People were underestimating the Democrats all afternoon and then they whipped out their version of a two-piece custom-made pool cue, aka Barry Berke, who deftly wiped the floor with Lewandowski, took all his money and, just for fun, stole his drawers without removing his pants.