Impeachment Advice from Willie Brown

Seasoned Democratic leader Willie Brown says the Democrats are playing with fire by holding secret impeachment hearings:

(Photo from Willie L. Brown, Jr.., Institute)

Americans inherently distrust any kind of government action that takes place out of public view, whether it’s a city council closed session or a closed-door congressional hearing.

For years, Democrats have led the charge for transparency in government, be it foreign policy or investigations into police shootings. Now these same Democrats are going behind closed doors to get the goods on Trump.

They can point to Republicans’ private interviews during their endless Benghazi investigations as justification for their strategy. But it wasn’t a good look then, and it’s not a good look now. Be better, right?

If the Democrats have hard evidence on Trump, they need to display it to the public in real time, rather than having bits and pieces and opening statements leak out without the context of the questioning that followed, from members of both parties.

Because the danger is there’s no bombshell, and Democrats replay their overhyping of Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 election, with no time to recover before November 2020.

The Republican theory is that the Democrats hope to damage President Trump's re-election prospects by not resolving impeachment until sometime next year, maybe even through the November election. If the Democrats had the goods they would present the case to the American people in open proceedings; because they don't, they can leak selective information from partisan "whistleblowers" to damage the President and his party. They and an anti-Trump media can bomb away without consequence; the President and the Republicans are helpless to respond to an unofficial inquiry.

The risk to the Democrats, IMHO, is that if secret proceedings carry on too long a disgusted electorate will nationalize the Congressional races more than usual. Enough Democratic seats will flip to the Republican side to limit the impeachment circus to Mr. Trump's first term.

If they open up the proceedings, Democrats have a chance of keeping the House and keeping impeachment going. They should listen to Willie Brown, but they probably won't.