Trump Will Be Convicted in the Senate

Barry Goldwater is the reason I love politics.  His was the first Presidential campaign I worked on actively.  In 1964 I spent my first months at college walking the cold, dark streets of Greeley, Colorado knocking on doors and delivering the gospel of Goldwater to the reluctant occupants of each house.  They were not interested in the message. 

I don’t know what kind of President Goldwater would have been, but El Jefe was one hell of a senator.  No day in the Senate, was he a better, greater or more prescient man of law, than on August 7, 1974.  It was on that day that Goldwater, accompanied by U.S. House Minority Leader John Rhodes (R-Arizona) and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott (R-Pennsylvania) requested a meeting with President Richard Nixon.

Goldwater’s August trip to the Oval Office was preceded by two years of ever more sordid and cynical machinations by a President that revealed himself to be embarrassingly paranoid.  This was the Watergate Scandal.

On June 17, 1972 five men, Virgilio Gonzalez, Bernard Barker, James McCord (presumably the brains of the outfit, but that might be a stretch) Eugenio Martinez and Frank Sturgis broke into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.  Another man, Alfred Baldwin, was supposed to be their “lookout” on the street, but he clearly was no more skilled at his job than any of the other members of this gang-who-can’t-shot-straight. In an unfolding scenario that proves the cyclical nature of history, it seems that members of Nixon’s inner circle were sure that they needed to wire tap the DNC in order to insure political victory. 

What followed these arrests was a familiar series of denial, cover-up, revelation, whistleblowing, subpoenas, delays, redactions, testimony…lather, rinse, repeat. 

The endless posturing and legal proceedings led, two years later, to Goldwater, Rhodes and Scott taking a meeting with Nixon.  The presence of Rhodes and Scott were obvious.  They were the Republican minority leaders of both the House and Senate.  But it was Goldwater’s presence that added the necessary heft to the heavy lifting that lay before them.  His message to Nixon was as straight forward as only Goldwater could put it.  Nixon was going to be impeached, he was going to be convicted in the Senate and he was going to be removed from office.  His only other choice was resignation. 

Nixon resigned the Presidency two days later.

Now, Mitch McConnell is no Goldwater, but Trump is no Nixon.  Nixon was paranoid, manipulative and bigoted, but he was also smart, well-informed and a relentless worker.  But, for all of that, I believe two things: (1) Trump, by virtue of the fact that he inveigled a foreign leader to interfere in the United States electoral process, has committed an impeachable offense and (2) that once impeached, Trump will be found guilty in the Senate.

There are those who doubt the Senate will convict Trump because they see only the partisan aspect of the vote.  Consider this.  There are 53 Republicans currently in the Senate.  Of those, 23 are up for re-election in 2020.  That leaves 30 Republicans who can vote on impeachment with little fear of repercussions.  Of the 23 who will have to live with their vote in a very personal way, it must still be remembered that Trump has done nothing to endear himself to Senate Republicans.  In fact, he has made their lives infinitely harder.  Given just a little sincere leadership, many Republicans will choose the high road. Remember, a conviction in the Senate will require only 17 Republicans to join the Democrats.

It would help if we had a Goldwater to take Trump out behind the woodshed and tell him the way of the world.  We don’t, but, collectively, we may be able to rise to the Gold standard. 

I keep the faith.