Last week we saw a new and novel approach to the endless, unhinged, and counterproductive campaign to somehow “get” President Trump.
The new theory is that he is guilty of a campaign finance violation.
But surely no president is going to be removed from office (and that is the goal, to nullify the 2016 election) over a campaign finance violation alone.
And that’s if one occurred.
Paying off your one-night stand is a stretch as a campaign contribution.
A friend killing a story about you in a gossip rag might be construed as a contribution — it is certainly a favor. Except that stories are held all the time at the National Enquirer and the motive for holding one on Mr. Trump might have been financial (it would have hurt his brand) or personal (it might have hurt his wife) as much as political.
Will all favors now be called political contributions — phone numbers given, introductions made, endorsements granted?
And if you do not report them will a special counsel descend?
Barack Obama had a huge campaign finance violation and … paid a fine.
Would anyone be making the case that a campaign finance violation is major crime if Mr. Trump had lost?
What happened to Russiagate? It deteriorated into: “He wanted to build a hotel in Moscow.” And now, “he paid off a porno actress.”
This is absurd. Democrats in the House now talking impeachment, and elements of the press similarly obsessed, need to get a grip. The President has done nothing that we now know of, after two years of constant and shifting investigations, to merit impeachment, indictment, or resignation.
How about we let him do his job — within the constitutional confines of checks and balances and the political parameters of consensus building and compromise?
How about his enemies oppose him on substance?
And here is some free advice for Democrats: How about you build something?
Don’t tear down, build.
Give the nation some new ideas, some fresh proposals and programs, some reason for uplift and hope.
There is room for new thinking and legislating in higher education, in conservation, in development of new manufacturing.
There is room for bipartisanship in infrastructure, space exploration, scientific and medical research, prison reform, and, yes, even immigration.
There are new faces that could lead the party to higher ground — people like Conor Lamb, and Beto O’Rourke, and several new women governors, including in Michigan, New Mexico, Maine, and Laura Kelly of Kansas, of all places.
Remember that old commercial, with the voice-over by Gene Hackman?
“Let’s build something together,” is a slogan for a political party reawakening itself and offering the American people hope for the future.
“Let’s impeach the President,” is not.
First Published December 19, 2018, 10:30 a.m.
