Foreseeing the Future

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I am not a fortune teller nor do I have a crystal ball, but seeing this future isn’t hard or even profound.  The House of Representatives, and more exactly the Democratic Party majority, crossed a line yesterday that will come back to haunt them in the not too distant future. 

I’m not talking about the upcoming elections in 2020, although the thought of them losing the majority seems a reasonable one based on the nature of the average American not living in a big city or at the end of the pollsters questioning.  I’m talking about the next time there is a President from the Democratic party, and the GOP has a majority in the lower chamber.  If you think impeachment won’t be the principal topic for the House you should consider this House vote as a new (very low) benchmark for what the majority party can ram through the now divided body.

I can certainly understand if you want to disagree with me, but I would cite in my defense the decisions made when the Democrats were in control of the Senate, and Harry Reed was spending all his time protecting his President and trying to get judges appointed to the bench.  The animosity was such that thoughts of bi-partisan cooperation disappeared.  Senators would put holds on appointments until their pet projects were addressed, or their pet peeves resolved.  At the end of the day, the Senate Majority leader decided to throw out 200-years of tradition in what was referred to as the “Nuclear Option.”

He eliminated the individual Senators' right to filibuster judicial appointments and the requirement for confirmation approval to have a supermajority of 60 votes.  Of course, the minority party was outraged and warned that changing the rules would have dire consequences.  Now, as the Democrats in the Senate are powerless to stop the steamroller of judicial appointments by the GOP I, for one, have very little sympathy.

Each time one party or the other seeks to short-circuit the established political processes to achieve some short-term gain they usually live to regret the decision.  This partisan impeachment will be no different.