OPINION:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi may think she’s strategizing with brilliance by letting the articles of impeachment stand in limbo in the House as she tries to wrest control from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and tell the Senate how to operate.
But out here in the real world, in the place where politicians infrequently tread and barely dare go, Americans aren’t impressed. Rather, they’re going, what the freak, Nancy.
If President Donald Trump is guilty, why the holdup?
Why not get the articles of impeachment into the hands of the Senate for a quick and hearty impeach, impeach, impeach?
The average American isn’t tuning into the legal-schmegal of impeachment intricacies on a daily basis. The average American is Christmas shopping. Or cleaning house for holiday visitors. Or watching the movie “Elf.”
The average American might be catching headlines or three-minute updates on impeachment — but by and large, most Americans already know they’re either for Trump or against Trump, and neither for-Trumpers nor against-Trumpers have changed tune because of impeachment.
So the key for Democrats lies in getting the uncertains to get in their impeachment ring.
On this, polls have been all over the place.
But common sense will tell that holding up an impeachment of a president who’s been classified by those who favor impeachment as a danger to the nation, a threat to America and a person of imminent risk to the fate of the Constitution — that stalling the impeachment and refusing to send it to the Senate for vetting, is suspicious at best and red-flagging at worst.
If Pelosi had the impeachment goods, she wouldn’t be sitting on the articles.
If Democrats had the stuff to send Trump packing, they wouldn’t be holding up the impeachment process.
To the average American, the stalling by Pelosi of impeachment articles in the House is a red flag that the articles of impeachment are bunk. She may see herself as tossing down a winning political card. But the common sense types in America, of which there are many, see her latest as a desperate ploy, a smoke-and-mirrors’ wave.
Pausing impeachment in such a manner just doesn’t play well in the outside-the-bubble-of-the-Beltway set.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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