By GREG SARBER
Lisa Murkowski continues to oppose the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, despite overwhelming support from the American people and her RINO partner in crime, Senator Collins (R-MA), flipping in support of it. We know Senator Murkowski is being dishonest when she argues that she is boldly standing up for the US Constitution by opposing this bill, leaving us to wonder what her real motivation might be. It could be that she hates President Trump so much that, since he is supporting the SAVE Act, she is willing to be on the wrong side of an 80/20 issue to hurt him politically.
Maybe she secretly hopes that by opposing the SAVE Act, she is enabling the Democrats to take control of the House in November so that they can fulfill their promise to impeach the president. If this is what she desires, it could happen. Historically, the political party that opposes the president typically picks up seats in midterm elections. The current House majority is only 5 seats (218/213), and the president’s party typically loses 28 House seats. If this year follows that trend, the House will flip to Democratic control. You might think this unlikely, but in the 2018 midterm election, the first time he was in office, Democrats took 41 seats and control of the House away from the Republicans. It could happen again.
Perhaps this is what the Machiavellian Murkowski is counting on. Last month, Congressman Shri Thanedar, a Democrat from Michigan, introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump. With the current Republican majority in the House, that impeachment attempt will go nowhere. However, if history holds, and after the November election, the Democrats hold a 235/198 majority in the House, you can certainly expect another impeachment attempt that the House will approve, and the Senate will have to consider.
I do not believe that this impeachment would successfully remove President Trump from office, but that isn’t the point of it. If the House votes to impeach him again, it would be a successful strategy in attacking the President’s agenda, which may be what Murkowski is counting on. If the House votes to impeach the president, forcing the Senate to conduct an impeachment trial, it will effectively halt any further implementation of the president’s programs.
One example of how this would work is the number of open US Attorney positions. There are 93 US Attorneys in this country, who are appointed by the president and require confirmation by the Senate. As of today, 51 of those positions are filled with interim or acting US Attorneys awaiting confirmation. They can only serve for a limited time without Senate approval. Multiple interim US Attorneys have failed to get a Senate confirmation hearing and have had to resign. Halting approval for US Attorneys is an effective tool the Senate can use to halt any prosecution of crimes committed under previous administrations.
If the House should impeach the president, the Senate would stop approval for any new US Attorneys. They would use a faulty excuse, like it would be inappropriate to proceed with the president’s appointments, knowing that President Trump might be removed from office. They will say this knowing full well that there is no way there will be enough votes in the Senate to remove President Trump. They have already tried to do this twice, with no success, and this will simply be a tactic used to impede the president.
Lisa Murkowski is a smart politician and knows that a tactic like this will tie up the president in impeachment hearings for the next two years, effectively stopping his presidency in its tracks. However, it all depends on Democrats winning control of the House, something that might not happen if the SAVE Act passes. That may be why she does not support it.
I have no idea why Murkowski hates the president to such an extent. Maybe it is because she benefits from voters who can’t prove their citizenship to win elections in Alaska. Perhaps it was because President Trump supported Kelly Tshibaka in the last election against her, and now she wants to pay him back. Maybe Lisa is just a liberal who hates strong conservatives because they oppose her worldview. Whatever her reasons, if Murkowski is successful in stopping the SAVE Act from passage, it will not only flip the House to Democratic control but will effectively end Donald Trump’s presidency. That may be all the motivation that a staunch leftist like Murkowski needs to do what she is doing.
It is hard to believe, but the fate of the nation rests on the opposition of one feckless liberal idiot from Fairbanks. God help us all.
Greg Sarber is a lifelong Alaskan. He is a petroleum engineer who spent his career working on Alaska’s North Slope. Now retired, he lives with his family in Homer, Alaska.
