Make Amash a manager
by digby
I don’t know if he wants it, but if he does, I find this argument from one of his constituents, Marcy Wheeler, persuasive:
I’m solidly in support of the idea — floated by thirty freshman Democrats — for Amash to be among the Impeachment Managers presenting the case in the Senate.
I think Amash brings several things this impeachment effort could badly use.
First, Democrats missed an opportunity in the House Judiciary hearing on Constitutional issues behind impeachment to call someone like Paul Rosenzweig, a Republican who worked on the Whitewater investigation, who backs impeachment in this case. While a bunch of Democratic lawyers were testifying, Amash was and has continued tweeting to his colleagues about how important impeachment is to the Constitution. It is critical to have a voice making the conservative case for upholding the Constitution. Just this morning, a long time Democratic activist was hailing how Amash has used his University of Michigan law degree to make the case for impeachment.
Meanwhile, even as the national press has spent countless hours interviewing demographically unrepresentative panels of voters from my county to understand how swing state voters feel about impeachment, Amash has risked his career in that swing state district. Well before queasy Democrats in swing districts came around to the necessity of impeaching President Trump, Amash left his party and took a stand to defend the Constitution. I think his courage may serve as inspiration for Republicans in the Senate who secretly recognize the necessity of impeaching Trump, even while they may worry they’ll ruin their political career. Amash also has close ties with (especially) Rand Paul and other libertarian leaning Senators (like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz), so might be persuasive with them, even if all of them have already basically opposed impeachment.
Finally, a point that some of the more hawkish people involved in impeachment (like Adam Schiff) may not understand, Amash works really well in bipartisan coalitions. He has long been a key member of the privacy coalition and currently serves as the “Republican” co-chair, with Zoe Lofgren as the Democratic co-chair, of the Fourth Amendment coalition. The cornerstone of that coalition, over more than a decade, has been honesty about where progressives and libertarians (and even traditional conservatives) share goals and where we disagree, sometimes dramatically. But with that cornerstone of shared understanding, and with a sense of responsibility for what each side can and should do to support the Constitution, he has been an invaluable member of a team. Some of the people who might also be considered as Impeachment Managers — like Jamie Raskin — would have experience with Amash in such a context. At the very least, Lofgren should be able to give Pelosi reassurances that Amash is utterly reliable when working as part of a bipartisan coalition. This is a topic, the President’s abuse of his authority, on which Amash took a Constitutional stand, which is precisely the kind of common foundation his past work with Democrats was built on.
I don’t get a vote. Speaker Pelosi gets to decide. But as an Amash constituent who has long found common ground with Amash on issues rooted in the Constitution, I think his involvement would be a tremendous value.
Normally, I would be against such a thing in these partisan times. You have to dance with them that brung you. But this is different. Amash’s libertarian reputation as a staunch defender of the constitution from the right is extremely valuable. Most Republicans are just hypocrites or phonies on this stuff, but there are a few voters who theoretically could be persuaded or at least shamed into reconsidering based upon his own perspective.
Unfortunately, being a House manager is a major, major feather in a congressman’s cap and Democrats are lining up to be named. They aren’t going to be happy to give one of those slots to a conservative Independent. But they should put their personal ambitions aside and do his anyway if Amash is game.
The Republicans are desperate to have this be “totally partisan” and therefore, illegitimate. This would argue against that and for history’s sake if nothing else, that’s important.
It’s Holiday Fundraiser time. If you can help support this old blog, I’d be very grateful.
— digby
Happy Hollandaise!
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