{"id":1310033,"date":"2019-05-07T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T02:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/durst-column-impeachment-short-form\/"},"modified":"2019-05-07T20:20:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T02:20:00","slug":"durst-column-impeachment-short-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/durst-column-impeachment-short-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Durst column: Impeachment short form"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

For all those who keep saying it can\u2019t get any weirder, this is on you. Haven\u2019t we learned not to taunt the gods? Like those good people whose only motivation for voting for Donald Trump was to shake things up. Are we shook up enough yet?<\/p>\n

But who would have thunk the new man in charge of the Justice Department could establish a world record for shameless obsequiousness this fast? He\u2019s put the \u201cole\u201d in grovel and makes Rudy Giuliani look like a blundering, bumbling bungler. Well, he is, but in contrast, the distinction is even more acute.<\/p>\n

In less than 10 weeks, Attorney General William Barr has defied subpoenas, Congress, the Constitution, common sense, good practices, good grammar and good grooming all to protect the president of the United States from being held responsible for his actions.<\/p>\n

Appearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Donald Trump\u2019s handpicked replacement for Jeff Sessions proved to be such a presidential lapdog, he should be recognized by the American Kennel Club as the 194th breed.<\/p>\n

Listen close and you can hear the wailing from Hollywood publicists who realize Barr has lowered the bar and they\u2019re going to have service their clients with even more excessive sycophantic subservience. The phrase \u201cbow and scrape\u201d will take on asphalt-scuffing connotations.<\/p>\n

A problem with this new breed of cur is they\u2019re not very housebroken, as he\u2019s refused to appear in front of the junior chamber\u2019s version of a Judiciary Committee, objecting to having committee staff lawyers interrogate him. Answering questions from Congress members is one thing, but actual lawyers? That\u2019s another. Some of those people are smart.<\/p>\n

He said when the president told former White House counsel Don McGahn to tell Sessions to fire the special counsel that didn\u2019t mean Trump wanted to fire the special counsel. He also believes a president can terminate any proceeding he wants. Because he is The Law. Sylvester Stallone would be so proud.<\/p>\n

Barr has effectively created a Catch-22: implying that the president cannot commit a crime, hence he can\u2019t be subject to a criminal investigation. Funny, he doesn\u2019t look like a Norman Mailer fan.<\/p>\n

Under questioning by California Senator Kamala Harris, Barr then claimed he couldn\u2019t remember if the White House ever asked or suggested that the Justice Department investigate anybody, you know, like an enemies list. Dodging Richard Nixon\u2019s playbook he stole a page from Bill Clinton\u2019s, saying he was confused by the word \u201csuggest.\u201d He seems perplexed by quite a few words like \u201ctruth,\u201d \u201cjustice\u201d and \u201cthe American Way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House plans to initiate contempt proceedings unless Barr hands over the full unredacted version of Mueller\u2019s report, but enforcement of a contempt charge is the purview of the Justice Department. Headed by the aforementioned William Barr. So chances of him throwing himself in the hoosegaw are somewhere between less than none and dream on big river.<\/p>\n

Now, calls for the attorney general to resign or threats to impeach him are competing directly with the president\u2019s sticky situation. Maybe the Democrats can set up an abbreviated process. Impeachment: The Short Form.<\/p>\n

What the hell, throw Mike Pence on the fast- track as well. Get some Silicon Valley venture capitalist to fund a start-up. Launch an Impeachment IPO. As Hunter S. Thompson once said, \u201cWhen the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Durst is an award-winning, nationally acclaimed columnist, comic and former sod farmer in New Berlin, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all those who keep saying it can\u2019t get any weirder, this is on you. Haven\u2019t we learned not to taunt the gods? Like those good people whose only motivation for voting for Donald Trump was to shake things up. Are we shook up enough yet? But who would have thunk the new man in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 22:38:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}