Along a party-line vote, House Democrats got over the magic 218 number to make this impeachment nonsense an official government circus. This is all stemming from a whistleblower report that alleges in a July phone call with Ukrainian political leadership, President Trump threatened to withhold military aid unless the nation opened a corruption probe into Hunter Biden’s board position at an energy company. Hunter Biden was placed there when his father, Joe, was vice president, earning $50,000 a month and allegedly selling access; Hunter has zero experience in the energy sector. The whistleblower’s name has been revealed, though nothing is confirmed. This person is reportedly a registered Democrat, CIA agent, former Obama NSC staffer, and had contacts with Rep. Adam Schiff’s staff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee—and the dark lord who is quarterbacking the Democrats’ impeachment efforts. So, say hello to Eric Ciaramella, everyone. His jacket fits the bill, but he’s only reported to be this anti-Trump deep state operative that never listened in on the call.

And prior to the impeachment inquiry vote yesterday, Schiff and his minions were holding hearings in secret and selectively releasing information that fit their narrative. It was like a Russian courtroom. Now that it’s official, and with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying that there will be a trial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have screwed over her party. As InsideSources notes, the core of the 2020 Democratic field, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, are going to have to come off the campaign trail in the critical days leading up to the start of the primary season. And the process in the Senate begins as soon as the articles are officially given to the upper chamber. The timeline is extended immensely based on how controversial the whole process becomes—and believe me, it’s beyond that level of classification. To call this Democratic coup attempt a witch hunt has become one of the biggest understatements in recent memory (via InsideSources):

Previous impeachments of U.S. presidents took two to four months to complete following the adoption of articles of impeachment, and with the October 31 vote, that means DC would be in the middle of an impeachment process just as Democrats were heading the polls in early states to pick their party’s nominee. The Iowa caucus will take place on Feb. 3, the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 11, the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22 and the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29. In other words, prime campaign time for the six U.S. Senators running for president. “The Trump trial could run through January — 31 priceless campaign days before the Democratic Party’s intensely competitive primaries,” wrote Daniel Henninger in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. “Instead of competing for their party’s nomination, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Michael Bennet will spend invaluable campaign time planted on Capitol Hill as the trial drones on.” […] Earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the House would vote on beginning a formal impeachment inquiry of the president, but the same day House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the Democratic party hadn’t decided whether to vote this week and added he hadn’t read the resolution for the vote. This doesn’t bode well for an efficient, quick-moving impeachment process. After a formal inquiry and public hearings, the House will adopt articles of impeachment and send them to the Senate, and the Senate will conduct the trial. James Wallner, a lecturer on government at American University who writes about parliamentary procedure, told InsideSources that how long impeachment will take depends on how long it takes the Senate to get the articles of impeachment from the House. “If [the process] becomes controversial, it will take longer,” he said.

Pelosi may want Trump out of office, but I doubt she wanted it to go down in this fashion. It will energize the GOP. Some of the Trump base could have been steered toward Democrats with the right messaging. That’s now dead. And only a moron would think this impeachment push is ironclad. Everything about this is politically tainted. Say what you will about Pelosi, I know she has some senior moments up there at the podium, but she’s no idiot. She was the very last to sign off on this motion after she could no longer hold the line against her Trump deranged caucus on the Hill. It still doesn’t save her from the fact that she’s a liberal Democrat whose agenda I wholly despise. As for her remarks that this is a sad day and that no one comes to D.C. to impeach a president, well, she’s just trying to smooth over the bad optics. You all know that. This has been a left-wing project since day one of the Trump presidency—and the 2018 Democrats promised to do this, so maybe that line should be dropped from the script. In all, I think Joe Biden should be pretty happy. He’s going to be all alone in some parts of the campaign trail. I mean, there will be others, but he’ll be the only heavyweight, someone with an actual chance of winning the 2020 nomination, and that just shows how weak this field really is. Alas, why the Democrats are executing this push. They know they can’t win.