The Yogi Berra Election, the Real Stakes on Nov. 8
By Allan Dodds Frank
If Yogi Berra’s “It ain’t over, ‘til it’s
over” ever applied to presidential elections, this would be the
year.
Every day, the most consequential presidential campaign in my
lifetime becomes darker as the fight for control of the U.S. Senate
grows ever more important.
Our democracy, even more than the control of the Supreme Court, is
what is most at risk. The media and voters need to demand answers
before Election Day from Congressional Republicans about their
concealed plan to steal the election after the fact.
Donald Trump’s “rigged election” rhetoric casting doubt on the
legitimacy of the presidential election is a cynical act to lay the
ground work for what will come next if Hillary Clinton is elected
and the Republicans manage to retain control of Congress.
The “Lock Her Up” chants he solicits at his rallies are meant to
justify the lynch mob rationale being fomented by the “alt.
right=Hate Right” Republicans. Trump and the Republican leadership
believe that repetition of phrases such as “Crooked Hillary”
substitutes adequately for legitimate facts.
Forget about polls showing Hillary Clinton in the lead and
projecting her as the President-elect for a four-year term.
Make no mistake: if the Republicans carry the Congress, there will
be an immediate effort to thwart the election results by trying to
impeach President-elect Hillary Clinton. The Republicans, heavily
financed by special interests, will do their utmost to steamroller
the will of the people. This is the “rigging” that should terrify us
all. It would be a coup by Congress.
The specter of the dark shadow will pass from Trump, the losing
Republican nominee, to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
McConnell has been lying low, but after the election, he will
suddenly be in the forefront of the battle more than will House
Speaker Paul “Damaged Goods” Ryan, who, if he is not forced out of
his position, will take his cues from McConnell.
McConnell is not up for re-election this year and therefore is not
immediately subject to voters who think the Kentucky Republican’s
last eight years of “service” have been despicable. He
single-mindedly has devoted his leadership to destroying trust in
the government by opposing everything the nation’s first black
president has been trying to accomplish. The Koch Brothers could not
be more delighted with McConnell’s corrosion of the people’s faith
in the legislative process.
For nearly a year, McConnell has circumvented democracy by not even
allowing a hearing, let alone a vote, on President Obama’s Supreme
Court nominee, Judge Merritt Garland.
If Clinton is elected, the first showdown with McConnell may come if
the Republican Majority Leader decides that he will continue his
11-month blockade of Garland, a respected judicial centrist who is
63-years-old.
If McConnell forces President-elect Clinton to withdraw President
Obama’s nominee, I wonder if he may try to continue his freeze on
the nomination process for another two years as the Republican plot
to oust Hillary Clinton unfolds.
Perhaps he will roll over for round one, once President-elect
Clinton threatens to nominate a 45-year-old lesbian to the Court
instead of Garland, as New Yorker and CNN Legal correspondent
Jeffrey Toobin humorously suggested during a speech recently. With
three justices possibly ready to depart the bench in the next four
years, the Supreme Court will be close to the paramount battle.
But, if the Republicans hold onto the Senate and the House, I
foresee a much scarier scenario that will subjugate the court battle
to a Republican war intent on destroying the Hillary Clinton
Presidency before it begins.
All the nastiness surrounding Hillary’s emails was orchestrated by
right wing Republicans for reasons even more nefarious than trying
to smear Clinton enough to cost her the election. That holds for
their impugning the “no grounds for prosecution” finding by FBI
director James Comey, who incidentally is a Republican appointed by
a Republican President.
Much of the dirty work was done in the House of Representatives
where right wing hardliners on various subcommittees labored
mightily to gin up grounds for investigations and possible criminal
charges.
Try as he might, after eight investigations and millions of taxpayer
dollars, Rep. Harold Watson “Trey” Gowdy of South Carolina and his
House Select Committee failed to pin legal culpability on Mrs.
Clinton for the State Department’s conduct with regard to the 2012
attack on the U. S. Ambassador in Benghazi, Libya. Testing the
former Secretary of State’s stamina, Gowdy had Mrs. Clinton on the
witness stand for 11 hours, hoping for her to slip-up in
cross-examination in order to lay the grounds for some future charge
of lying to Congress.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah and
House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., quickly asked the
U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia to begin a criminal
investigation of Hillary Clinton for perjury before Congress.
Remarks critical of Clinton made by Comey also were cited as
evidence of perjury.
Most important though, the Republican congressmen are determined to
refute Comey’s declaration that: “Although there is evidence of
potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of
classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable
prosecutor would bring such a case.”
If any Republican congressional candidates have been challenged
publicly about their plans to attempt to impeach President-elect
Clinton, their answers - if they exist - have not made any national
headlines. Nor has anyone asked the top Tea Party man, Republican
Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence, about whether he would support
impeachment of Clinton.
It is time to demand answers – and for Democrats to make clear that
the same Republican operatives engaged in voter suppression
operations have no limits on their efforts to disenfranchise Clinton
voters. Indeed, they may even be behind the efforts to hack ballot
boxes and voter tabulations. But that is retail thievery, so look
ahead to the wholesale attempt to force impeachment on the country.
In every race, Democrats need to highlight now why voting against
Republicans up and down the ticket is so vital. By bringing the
threat of the Republicans’ end game to the forefront, the paralysis
might still be averted. Clinton’s surrogates must enlighten the
public about what is really at stake in the races for Senate and
House seats. Only a Democratic sweep can prevent the ongoing
disruption the country and the destruction of our ballot-driven
democracy.