Poor Lindsey Graham just can't catch a break
by digby
He tries so hard and it's never, ever enough:
Donald Trump and his close political allies demand more aggressive pushback to the House impeachment investigation.
On Thursday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a symbolic resolution condemning the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as being inherently unfair and constitutionally problematic. Among other things, the non-binding bill called on the House to hold a vote to open an inquiry, to allow Trump to call witnesses, and to provide congressional Republicans the power to issue subpoenas and “participate fully” in all proceedings.
Graham’s effort was designed as a sop to the president. In fact, the senator had just returned from lunch with Trump at the White House when he introduced his bill, and reported that the president was not at all dissatisfied with the defense he’d received from the Senate GOP.
“I think he feels frustrated that—here we go again,” Graham told The Daily Beast.
But his resolution appeared to only infuriate Trumpworld writ large as it demanded that the Senate Republicans hold public hearings and congressional investigations that placed the president’s domestic opponents under the microscope.
“He honestly probably would have been better off doing nothing than that because it’s pretty clear this resolution is nothing more than a ploy to appease the base which is furious at him right now,” said one Trumpworld operative.
That Graham’s maneuver fell short of satisfying the political bloodthirst among Trump’s allies didn’t go unnoticed by his colleagues, many of whom have privately gripped in recent days about Trump’s eagerness to air his disapproval of the very people who he needs to keep in his corner if and when an impeachment trial occurs. One top GOP Senate operative said that patience on the Hill is “wearing thin.”
“It’s exhausting and they don’t know what they don’t know in terms of where this is going,” the operative added.
Other aides said that they found the attacks from Trump-allied operatives to be counterproductive.
“It’s an interesting strategy,” a senior Senate GOP aide told The Daily Beast, “to attack Republican senators after they try to defend you.”
Oh heck. They are starting to fight amongst themselves. And Trump is getting upset that they aren't protecting their Dear Leader quite enough. They seem concerned. What a shame.
If Graham were to hold Judiciary hearings to interview different witnesses and establish a counter-narrative more favorable to Trump, it’s unlikely that Senate rules and precedent would allow for a process that many Trump backers might want to see.
According to several Senate veterans, the rules of the chamber do dictate that Graham would have to grant Democrats on his committee the chance to call witnesses selected by the minority members of that committee. It is possible, several aides said, that Graham could move to scrap and/or set the rules of his committee though it’s unclear if he’d be successful and doing so would represent a massive breach in norms and risk upending future committee business.
“It’s something we never considered when we were there,” said Greg Nunziata, who was formerly senior Republican counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The majority and minority historically work in concert in planning hearings. The majority does call the majority of witnesses but it is practice is to allow the minority to call witnesses as well.”
Graham, on Thursday, said he would not call witnesses to testify, and in doing so he noted that he would have to allow the minority member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), to call witnesses of her own. Graham also admitted that he was under pressure from Republicans to subpoena the Democratic lawmaker running the impeachment probe who is currently Trump’s public enemy number one. "I'm being asked by folks out in the Republican world, why don't you call Adam Schiff?" Graham said. "I think that'd do a lot of damage to the country, for a senator to call a member of the House."
While that more measured approach has angered Trump-allied operatives, including the president’s son Don Jr., it is one that has notably been embraced by some in the White House. One senior aide told The Daily Beast that they were waiting to see the results of the U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the Russia probe origins before deciding on next steps.
“I suppose following his report,” the aide said “further action could be taken as warranted.”
He's waiting for Barr, obviously.
