House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., reads a statement announcing a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

For being such a layup, Democrats sure continue to refuse to take the shot.

As we enter almost a month of impeachment fever, the House is currently in the midst of an “impeachment inquiry” led by Rep. Adam Schiff, who’s proven himself time and again to be a complete hack. If you have reservations about how fair such a process is going, congrats on being more perceptive than the media, who see no issue with Republicans being frozen out of the matter. Imagine their reaction if Republicans had done that to Democrats on Benghazi, for example.

But aside from the game playing going on, one of the more stark realities that’s being made clear is just how scared Nancy Pelosi and her party are of actually having to vote on impeachment.

Take this line put out by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who leads the Democrat Caucus, over the weekend.

#WATCH: Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, calls a formal House vote on the impeachment inquiry "cosmetic and procedural," adding "a majority of the House of Representatives supports the impeachment inquiry." 👇🏼pic.twitter.com/YxOV5frpBh — Elma Aksalic (@ElmaAksalic) October 6, 2019

Wait, what? A vote is “cosmetic and procedural?” Who knew that actually having to follow the Constitution to enact the privileges and special powers of impeachment was just cosmetic? A lot of future Republican majorities are going to be glad to hear that.

Secondly, how can he know a majority back an inquiry without a vote? Just because they say so with nothing on the line? The logic is ludicrous, which means George Stephawhatever did nothing to push back on the claim.

Here are the facts. Impeachment inquiries, if we are talking about the use of special subpoena powers (which Democrats claim they now have), do not just happen by decree. If they did, every majority in the House throughout history could have just said they are having one and used it to harass and tie up any administration. If they want the ability to compel witnesses and document transfers, they need to actually vote on impeachment or, at the very least, they have to vote on the rules involved in an inquiry.

There’s another reason they are terrified to vote, though. It’s not just that they don’t want their moderates to have to go on record. They also don’t want to allow Republicans any power to rebut what they are doing. By not having an official inquiry, they get to make the rules in committee. The moment impeachment is officially brought to the fore, Republicans will get several tools to use themselves to fight back.

So what’s really going on? This isn’t an impeachment inquiry at all. It’s another useless, partisan committee investigation led by a known liar who’s already been caught orchestrating this entire matter. If we had a media worth anything, they’d be intellectually honest enough to report that.

Republicans should continue to demand a vote and neither they nor the White House should provide Pelosi with anything in the meantime. If they want to impeach, then impeach. Enough of the word games and abuse of power.

————————————————

Enjoying the read? Please visit my archive and check out some of my latest articles.

I’ve got a new twitter! Please help by following @bonchieredstate.