Again...

Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, who this morning excused President Donald Trump’s actions over the Ukraine scandal as “maybe wrong,” told Bloomberg News on Sunday that if former Vice President Joe Biden were to become the next president, the GOP could very well try to impeach him.

“I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened, “Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him."

Wait...

Patrick Mahomes threw for a pair of touchdowns in the game’s final 6:13, helping the Kansas City Chiefs erase a 10-point deficit and beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Super Bowl 54. 

Mahomes finished 26 of 42 passing for 286 yards, his last pass intentionally going incomplete on the final play -- a heave downfield to erase the final 5 seconds of Kansas City's 50-year wait.

Unsetteled...

Former Secretary of State John Kerry — one of Joe Biden's highest-profile endorsers — was overheard Sunday on the phone at a Des Moines hotel explaining what he would have to do to enter the presidential race amid "the possibility of Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party — down whole."

Sitting in the lobby restaurant of the Renaissance Savery hotel, Kerry was overheard by an NBC News analyst saying "maybe I'm f---ing deluding myself here" and explaining that in order to run, he'd have to step down from the board of Bank of America and give up his ability to make paid speeches.

Kerry said donors like venture capitalist Doug Hickey would have to "raise a couple of million," adding that such donors "now have the reality of Bernie.

It’s not clear how serious Kerry was on the call about jumping into the race. But that he would even discuss the possibility suggests that prominent members of the Democratic Party remain deeply unsettled by the current field, Sanders' strength in the polls, and the ability of any candidate to defeat President Donald Trump.

Quarantine...

The United States will implement stringent travel restrictions Sunday evening in an effort to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak that has so far killed more than 300 people in China and infected more than 14,000 worldwide.

The plan, which goes into effect at 5 p.m. ET, includes temporarily denying entry to foreign nationals who visited China in the 14 days prior to their arrival to the US, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Friday.

Restrictions also apply to US citizens who have been in China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, in the two weeks prior to their return to the US. Upon their return to the US, those citizens will be subject to a mandatory quarantine of up to 14 days.

Witch Hunt...

The Senate voted on Friday to block new witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, signaling a crucial turning point and steering toward an all but certain acquittal within days. 

The end game became clear after this step. The Dems new what they are getting out of it and the Republican will solidify their base as a result.

The rancor engendered by our current impeachment debate bears out Alexander Hamilton’s prediction that impeachments would “seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to divide it into parties.” But the scope of “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” shouldn’t turn on one’s opinion of any particular president. 

Partisans who lower the bar to impeachment in order to punish a president they revile — or raise it to save one they support — may, under future presidents, live to regret the standard they’ve set.

Tried...

Moment...

The House of representatives is looking for a Jesus moment. Will, there is a principle in the law that says "Clean Hands." Just a thought.

No Touchy...

Clearly...

Fellow...

Impeaching Donald Trump would do nothing to halt the deep decay that has beset the American republic. It would not magically restore democratic institutions. It would not return us to the rule of law.   

Impeachment is about cosmetics. It is about replacing the public face of empire with a political mandarin such as Joe Biden, himself steeped in corruption and obsequious service to the rich and corporate power, who will carry out the same suicidal policies with appropriate regal decorum. 

The ruling elites have had enough of Trump’s vulgarity, stupidity and staggering ineptitude. They turned on him not over an egregious impeachable offense because he made the fatal mistake of trying to take down a fellow member of the ruling elite.

But this kind of dirty quid pro quo is the staple of politics and international relations. Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official, was hired to dig up dirt on Trump and Russia by Fusion GPS, a research and intelligence firm under contract to investigate Trump by Perkins Coie, a law firm working for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. 

Four decades ago, Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager, William Casey, asked the Iranians not to free the American hostages held in Tehran until after the November presidential election to hurt incumbent Jimmy Carter, according to Gary Sick, Carter’s chief aide on Iran. The American hostages were released the day Reagan was inaugurated, in January 1981.

Trump, however, will not go quietly into this good night. He will attempt to bring the whole rotten edifice down with him. And he may succeed.