OPINION:
Phil Scott is the Republican governor of Vermont, and in a disgraceful show of political grandstanding, released a statement saying he supported the leftist-led impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
Shame. For shame.
What this nation needs are public servants who serve the people with strength and character — not Republicans who pretend to be Republicans while fighting all-things-Republican.
“I support getting the facts in that inquiry that’s happening,” Scott said, CNN reported. “So I think this is — these are serious allegations we need to — we need to make sure that we do the fact finding and figure out what exactly did happen.”
Scott could’ve chosen any number of statements to make about this inquiry.
He could’ve, for example, make the point that an inquiry into impeachment is about as real as a pre-crime — that both are simply figments of imaginations based on suppositions. And that in the case of the impeachment inquiry, the imaginations are based on the hope and hate of Democrats to take down Trump.
He could’ve spoken about the long, long list of previous Democratic attempts to impeach this president, going back to pre-inauguration days, as evidence of the whole politicization of the process and as means of showing the dubious nature of these current so-called impeachable allegations.
He could’ve taken the high road and said nothing; he could’ve said that this is America and in America, the crime comes before the prosecution and in that spirit of American justice, he was going to refrain from commenting on the current inquiry.
But he didn’t.
Scott, who won a second gubernatorial term in 2018, in a state that went overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in 2016, in a state known for far-left progressive policies, in the state that brought to Congress the socialist-minded Sen. Bernie Sanders, has been an anti-Trumper from the get-go.
Scott has criticized Trump’s remarks about “The Squad” — Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley — as racist.
He’s criticized Trump’s pick of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and called on the Senate to delay confirmation.
He’s criticized Trump’s rollback of climate change regulations.
He’s criticized Trump’s foreign trade policy; he’s criticized Trump’s immigration and border plans.
He’s criticized so much that one wonders, how is he even Republican?
And of course, he’s not. Not really. Scott is another one of those Republican In Name Only pols who muck about the bottom of the political barrel, serving the other party’s bidding by being the token voice of the other side — while not really being on the other side. As if we’re all somehow fooled.
The media call him a moderate.
The Democrats characterize him as a Republican they can work with — a voice of reason among the other crazy radicals in the GOP.
And now, the press is going to fawn over him because he’s become the Republican Who Wants To Impeach Trump — the message being that, by gosh, if even a Republican sees validity in impeaching Trump, well then, Trump must definitely, decidedly, no doubt about it have done something really impeachably wrong.
But let’s not forget: Scott is a RINO. A Democrat in disguise.
Vermont’s governors are elected for two-year terms, but there are no limits on how many terms they can serve. Scott hasn’t yet announced his intent for 2020. But you can be sure he has further political aspirations.
And in a state known around the nation as a progressive stronghold, you can be sure Scott’s support for this impeachment inquiry has much to do with advancing his own career and little, nay nothing, to do with the so-called “serious allegations” against Trump.
If he were an honest or honorable guy, he’d just jump Republican ship and declare membership in the Democratic Party.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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