The Rethuglicans at yesterday's impeachment inquiry hearings ping-ponged from one idiotic conspiracy theory to another as they flailed for a coherent defense of demagogue and Russian asset Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump's July 25 shakedown call to Ukraine. One, advanced by Trump messenger boy and fake farmer Devin Nunes, was that it was the Ukrainians who meddled in the 2016 elections, a "theory" that likely originated in Moscow. Another was that Trump was really interested in corruption in Ukraine, although he never used the word "corruption" in that phone call and the only names mentioned that he wanted investigated were the Bidens.
Perhaps the most ludicrous argument, advanced by several clueless Rethugs, was that since the aid eventually flowed and Ukraine didn't investigate the Bidens, "no harm no foul." (Note that it was only after the whistleblower's report became known that the aid was released). It's as if there should be no criminal penalties for attempted fraud, extortion, bank robbery, or as The Simpons' Sideshow Bob put it, attempted murder:
The Rethuglican Sideshow Bobs and Bobettes on the committee were playing to an audience of one in the Oval Office, who has been implicated in extortion by his own transcribed words, and words on video out of his own dirty mouth, among other sources. They know it, but distraction, diversion and deceit are their currency, and they used it yesterday, and we've heard only one day of testimony.
BONUS: Former Federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti explains in an opinion piece:
"When defense attorneys can’t mount a defense on the merits, they raise a lot of peripheral issues in the hope of convincing at least one juror that there is reasonable doubt."Or, as Carl Sandburg put it,
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”.
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