Well, despite the many hours of overtime and being scheduled to work a half day tomorrow I am managing this week to make at least this one blog post.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, announced that the House of Representatives will votes on articles of impeachment for Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America. There is little doubt that the Articles will pass the House forcing the Senate to hold a trial, making this the third Impeachment of a President. Johnson in the post civil war period was impeached but acquitted in the Senate by a single vote and Bill Clinton was impeached after walking arrogantly into a perjury trap and then acquitted by a vote along partisan lines.

Nixon resigned before he could be impeached but expect no such displays from Trump. The most likely result from the House actions will be another partisan acquittal. With trump showing 85 to 90 percent support from GOP voters, who ranked him above Lincoln as a Republican president, no elected GOP official will dare vote against him and risk destruction in the next primary. I think is it also very likely that Senator Mitch McConnel will use whatever procedural tricks are available to him to make the Senate trail as painless as possible for his caucus. It will be an abrogation of their oaths and their duty, but the Republicans of the House will vote against impeachment and those in the Senate will vote for his acquittal. People, including friends of mine, who supported the impeachment of Bill Clinton will find some thin reed of justification to oppose Trump’s or declare themselves ‘agnostic’ on the entire issue.

The facts however are clear.

Trump used the office of the President of the United States of America to pressure a foreign power to damage his political opponent.

The fact that the foreign power ultimately did not deliver the goods is irrelevant.

This is the most clear-cut case for impeachment since Nixon’s orders to his government, his abuse of power, to cover for his own crimes. It is the reason for the powers of impeachment, to hold elected federal officers accountable for their misuse of the power wielded by them.

President Clinton did indeed break the law when he perjured himself will under oath. The fact that he was set up is ugly and speaks of naked partisanship but as an intelligent man and a well trained lawyer he should have recognized that questions about his sexual affairs meant that secret had been broken and he should have spoken the truth as required by law but like a character from a film noir he was crippled by his ego and desire and stepped into the ambush.

Trump was not tricked or trapped; he did not lie about a sexual affair. He actively used the powers of the office he holds for personal political gain. We have reached a terrible day when such abuse will be excused.