It’s happening. It’s finally happening. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has named the managers for the impeachment trial to be held in the Senate as soon as she gets the Articles of Impeachment over to them. It’s an anti-climactic event after nearly a month of waiting around. But Pelosi had a strategy and she stuck to it regardless of whether most in the media and even members of her own caucus questioned the efficacy of the delay.
The managers:
Today, I have the privilege of naming the Managers of the impeachment trial of the President. #DefendOurDemocracy pic.twitter.com/Y2613Ni3pC
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 15, 2020
At the top of the list are the two Democrats who have been at the heart of impeachment before the House investigation was officially announced. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler will continue to do nothing for their constituents for at least another few weeks as they get to play prosecutors against President Trump.
The other members of the team are House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren, House Democratic Caucus Committee Chair Hakeem Jeffries, Representative Val Demings, Representative Jason Crow, and Representative Sylvia Garcia. They are meaningless. They’re getting some national airtime to raise their credentials and test out the waters for better assignments in the future.
This is all politics, folks. Those who aren’t familiar with how DC really works (including most in DC) might examine the makeup and see what qualifies any of these people to be managers, They might look at them and wonder why there’s only seven; Republicans assigned 13 managers for President Clinton’s Senate trial. They might even contemplate if any of them will be able to sway some Republicans to vote against the President. But at the end of the day, the impeachment show needed stars, and these are the people who were cast for the roles.
Watching Pelosi’s press conference was as compelling as watching a toilet flush. As for the seven managers named to prosecute the case, there’s nothing to see. No surprises. Not curveballs. No grand strategy. It’s politics as usual. Another day in DC.
