Harry Litman approves Lawrence Tribe's alternative path in impeachment.

[hughee99]

40. If you want it to be as open and public as possible, you send the charges to the Senate and have an

actual impeachment trial. You make the case and force the republicans in the Senate to either support Trump or turn on him. Put each and every Senator on the spot to do their job. If the house feels like Trump should be impeached, and that they can make the case for it, it's their JOB to do it.

Saying "We think he should be removed, and we believe we can make the case" and then not do it is political cowardice. The public opinion will turn on the strength of the case. Those who say that the Senate acquitted him, so he must not have done anything wrong, aren't going to be swayed by anything the house does anyway. Those who agree with the House would be the "choir", you don't need to preach to them and the Senate vote won't matter to them anyway. This is for the undecided, and the best way to get them to pay attention is to have an actual Senate trial.

What this path is, is a way to make political hay from the issue without actually doing what they're supposed to do about it.

“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

If they can make the case, they know what they need to do (make the case to remove him from office) and they believe they can do it, what valid reason would the have to NOT do it? If you say that they shouldn't do it because sending it to the senate may hurt Dems politically, you're admitting that it's okay not to do their job when it's a political liability.