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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Nancy Pelosi recently told the Washington Post:

I’m not for impeachment. This is news. I’m going to give you some news right now because I haven’t said this to any press person before. But since you asked, and I’ve been thinking about this: Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it.

We can parse that statement line by line and people have been concentrating on the “And he’s just not worth it” line.  To this writer, it is not so much derisive than it is resignation.  Some of it may be attributable to the fact Democrats believe their eventual 2020 will nominee will render Trump a one term President.  Another part of it is that she realizes that if the House votes to impeach, Trump will prevail in the Senate.  However, most of it is due to the fact that their great gambit- Russiagate- is going down in flames.

With the impending release of the Mueller investigation’s report and with every revelation coming out of Congressional testimony, each passing day reveals this whole scenario for what it was and what many here believed from the start: a bad and dangerous sham of a hoax.  The Mueller investigation has been long, it has been boring, and it is complicated.  The writers and diarists here at Redstate have done a great job of keeping readers updated on events and analysis.  It is almost a full time job just tending to that task.  But as many have said here, it is very likely to be anti-climactic.

From day one, many have said the whole thing was a stinking heap of BS.  Those that haven’t have found a home at the Bulwark.  Anyone who took the Russian collusion story as gospel is a fool.  One suspects that even high-ranking Democrats thought it was BS from the start also, but when there is a Resistance to be run…   I believe the plan all along was designed to open an investigation into Trump’s campaign and during that investigation find something else they could catch him on.  Trump describes it as a “witch hunt.”  A more accurate description would be people went out hunting for witches with fishing poles in hand.

In a bizarre way, you can’t blame them for trying.  Trump’s business is a labyrinth of holdings and companies and Trump himself has a history of shady practices which are well-documented.  If you get enough access and you flip enough people around him, chances are the shot was worth it.  After all, it worked in the past.  But even now, as most people knew that Trump did not work with Putin to decide or subvert the election, it increasingly looks like all these efforts will not even turn up “something else.”

Part of it is attributable to Trump’s business style.  He is a technophobe who shuns text messages and e-mail.  He relies on face-to-face meetings and the telephones.  There is usually no paper trail or digital fingerprint left behind (other than Twitter messages).  I laugh when CNN and others talk about “turmoil” in the White House every time someone resigns.  For anyone who has ever worked in a Trump business (I have) knows, turnover in upper management is commonplace.  Person A may serve his business purposes to get him through Scenario A, but it is on to a new person after Scenario A is no longer a priority.

As a result, you have certifiable whack jobs like Adam Schiff intimating to CNN there may not be enough evidence to impeach.  Between Pelosi and Schiff, it is obvious they are now lowering expectations when it comes to Mueller.  Hence, all they have left is a series of moves designed to harass and hound Trump which will provide late night fodder for Chris Cuomo’s and Don Lemon’s masturbation fantasies.

There is a beautiful silver lining in all this.  Say what you will about Trump, but he inadvertently and through their own ineptitude revealed the man behind the curtain.  Maybe the puppeteer is still hidden in the dark, but we now see the strings.  The Left spent years perfecting the playbook against conservatives and Republicans, then Trump came along.  They tried every trick in their book: Trump was a racist, Trump was misogynist, Trump was a fascist Nazi in a business suit with red tie, Trump is not a conservative, Trump donated to Democrats in the past, etc.

Next, they trotted out dozens of women out of thin air accusing him of actions just shy of rape after a year of campaigning.  When Trump fought back, the women retreated citing amorphous death threats.  Their “ace in the hole-” the now-infamous “p**** grabbing tape-” which was most likely released with the assistance of the Never Trump faction- even failed.

But rest assured, there was an insurance policy and time to raise the stakes even further.  It was an all or nothing gambit.  If they win, Trump is impeached.  Then everything returns to the new normal as the Left inflicts death by a thousand cuts on the Right with their willing accomplices on the Right.  The rubes have been cut off at their knees and their heads displayed on pikes for all to see.  How dare conservative principles actually be implemented?

But, the lesson of the campaign was never really learned by the Left and the NeverTrumpians.  The Russian collusion narrative placed all the credibility chips in the pot.  If they lose this hand, then the best they can hope for is the voting public will give them the benefit of the doubt.  Their hearts were in the right place they will assure us.  Sure…they end up looking like fools, but they are honest and sincere fools.

The worst case scenario is that they do not get a pass from the public and the entire thing is revealed as a sick, long, and costly hoax foisted upon the public.  With each passing revelation of a concerted effort by institutions the public looked up to- the FBI and the Justice Department in particular- the credibility of those institutions are called into question.  It is the credibility of those institutions that were being questioned before Trump which, along with the FBI and the Justice Department, the IRS, EPA, FCC and an alphabet soup of other agencies had become weaponized by the Democratic Left under the Obama administration and his smooth-talking ways.

Of course, there will be those real bitter clingers- the ones who still believe there was collusion with the Russians.  They are the Susan Wrights and Don Lemons of the world.  But, for others who were so invested for so long they will be hopefully demoralized and beaten with broken hearts.  Do we let them off the hook, shake hands and express no bad feelings, or do we cut them at the knees and display their heads on a pike?  We know what they would do.  If the entire sad episode happens to turn off the Left from politics, then great.  If it purges those weak-kneed conservatives long on talk and short on action, then even better.

Already, so-called conservative mainstays like Max Boot, Peggy Noonan, Jennifer Rubin, George Will and the entire staff of The Bulwark have lost an audience.  They can only resort to appearances on CNN, MSNBC, or Meet the Press where they disgustingly hand-wring, pearl clutch, grovel and virtue signal to a Leftist echo chamber.

Trump’s greatest achievement, whether he wins or loses in 2020, will be the exposure of the charlatan conservatives and the true colors of the socialist Democrats.  One doubts that any other candidate on the GOP side in 2016 could have pulled this off, even Ted Cruz.  We have seen the lengths to which the Left and their boot-licking accomplices on the Right will go.  The curtain has been pulled and it is high time the puppeteers be exposed.