A number of commentators have observed in the ten days or so since the current wave of Trump impeachment hysteria began that the current “formal impeachment inquiry” isn’t really formal because it was not undertaken in response to an impeachment resolution introduced on the House floor. But some House members are clearly unconcerned about whether the investigation follows protocol — some so much so that they are willing to forgo the drafting of articles of impeachment that lay out the specific crimes alleged, the House vote on the same, the Senate trial that would follow if the measure carries, and the conviction by two thirds of the chamber and move directly to the punishment phase.
Such a member is California Democrat Maxine Waters, who tweeted on Monday that “impeachment is not good enough for Trump. He needs to be imprisoned & placed in solitary confinement.”
I'm calling on the GOP to stop Trump's filthy talk of whistleblowers being spies & using mob language implying they should be killed. Impeachment is not good enough for Trump. He needs to be imprisoned & placed in solitary confinement. But for now, impeachment is the imperative.
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) October 1, 2019
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
I believe she means “impeachment is too good for Trump,” but her tenuous grasp on English is the least of her problems.
Since before the 2016 election, Waters has been on a crusade to “impeach fohty-five,” alternately demanding that the president resign his office to “free” Democrats from the impeachment process and urging Americans to take to the street in opposition to the administration.
Some have treated the tweet as just another case of “Auntie Maxine” being herself. But I submit that her message is not something to treat lightly.
Politico reported yesterday on a relatively minor aspect of the likely fallout from Waters’s tweet, namely that her “call for the president to be put in solitary confinement has the potential to unsettle fellow Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the Financial Services Committee, has compared solitary confinement to torture.”…
But a far more serious consideration is that Waters has now declared in essence that she’s prepared to bypass the law to satisfy her lust for punishing a man she dislikes intensely. As House Financial Services Committee chairwoman, Waters is in charge of one of six House committees charged with gathering evidence that will bear on the decision to go forward. This is a grave responsibility and one that the founders expected would be carried out dispassionately and with the seriousness it deserves. Can Maxine Waters be counted on to vote fairly as one of 535 House members, much less oversee the work of her committee without passion or prejudice? Her tweet casts doubt on that question. (RELATED: How brilliant was it to make Maxine Waters chair of the House Financial Services Committee?)
