Vote counting is still going on in several states including Florida where Nelson is closing in on Scott and a statewide recount is being triggered. In Arizona, it looks like Democrat Kyrsten Sinema just passed Martha McSally for the Senate seat vacated by Jeff Flake. In Georgia, Kemp just declared himself king and resigned as SOS but if his vote count goes below 50%, there will be a runoff between him and Stacy Abrams. Back again to Florida, Gillum and DeSantis are also getting close enough for a statewide recount.
But it’s the senate seats I’m most interested in. Because Sinema and Nelson could reset the senate back to the status quo that we had before the election. And if THAT happens, something very interesting might occur.
Did anyone notice how many people have taken to the street tonight in support of Bob Mueller? Acting AG Matt Whitaker is expected to sharply curtail the investigation and protect Trump like Sessions wouldn’t. That’s almost guaranteeing that the House judiciary committee will have to pick up the investigation where Mueller left off.
I know this really annoys some pundits who assume that we are too stupid to know that the House has many committees and can multitask on other issues, thank you very much. What I hope these very important keepers of national civility are realizing is that voters are not having that whole kumbaya shit this time. Trump has crossed too many lines. He can’t be trusted and we voters want to get to the bottom of this as much as we want decent healthcare. The protests are not going to stop. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t kind of get bigger this Veterans Day weekend.
Anyway, here’s my wild scenario, for what it’s worth. Matt Whitaker can’t act as AG. The public won’t stand for it. Trump will be without any protection until the Senate comes back. When will that be? IDK but you don’t get instant AG if you’re forced to nominate someone. And the vacancies act says that if the President fires a senate approved political appointment, he can’t just shove someone else in his place willy nilly. Technically, the next person in authority at the justice department would become AG. That would be Rod Rosenstein.
It sure sounds like Sessions was fired. Trump asked for his resignation, Sessions gave it. I’ll let the lawyers parse this one. Preet Bharara seems to think that Sessions was fired, and if anyone should know what it’s like to be fired by Trump, it would be Bharara. If that’s the case, Rosenstein is acting AG. There’s nothing Trump can do to change that unless he wants to fire Rosenstein. It would be a Saturday Night Masacre. That’s what got Nixon to the tipping point.
All of that is going to play out in the next two months until the new Congress is sworn in. Lets just ponder about why Trump is pulling out all of the stops and forcing a Constitutional Crisis in order to protect himself. Protect himself from… what exactly? All the more reason to ignore the pundits and protest.
Ok, so here’s my wildly improbable scenario. Mueller continues to do his thing. The truth gets very close to coming out. Trump strikes out like a cornered animal and someone finally realizes that when the Senate comes back, the numbers may not have changed all that much but the players have. There are a couple of wild cards in there now. Some of them are pretty ambitious people. Ambitious people with experience in running an executive branch. Ambitious people who may have been humiliated by Donald Trump. I’m talking about Romney. It’s too soon to tell whether he’ll be another Jeff Flake.
But what if he wouldn’t have to be? What if Pelosi and Republican Senators make a deal? Get Trump and Pence out of office and let Romney serve out the rest of Trump’s term. Sort of a Gerald Ford shuffle remix.
This has several advantages to the Democrats. First, they get rid of the big orange and his bootlicker. Second, the pundits get the President they always wanted. Third, Pelosi looks like a practical peacemaker and the Democrats get political capital for brokering a deal that spared the country a lot of turmoil. We only have to wait two years before we run against him. Fourth, whatever dark secret Trump is hiding, and I’m betting it’s a very big one, may never see the light of day. It might be one of those secrets that we would all be better off not knowing, like Oumuamua really was a interstellar sunsail engineered by intelligent lifeforms from a planet orbiting the star Vega, which is only 25 lightyears away from here.
Ok, my brain is a little busy tonight.
Thoughts? Taunts? Eye rolling? Does anyone have a better idea?
Put it in the comments.
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The Confluence 