From Blue Dog To Junkyard Dog

As the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports, former congressman and Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie has called for Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard to resign from Congress “the sooner the better.” Abercombie, who backs a rival candidate, cited Gabbard’s missing votes “on everything” but fallout from the resignation call has focused on Gabbard’s impeachment stand.

“She voted “present” on impeachment,  explaining last week that she supports “the best interests of our country, not what’s best for me politically or what’s best for my political party,” Abercrombie said.

“After examining the impeachment report,” Gabbard explained, “I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no.” Back in October, Gabbard took a more controversial stand.

“Trump won the election in 2016,” Gabbard said in the CNN debate that led off with questions on impeachment. In effect, Tulsi Gabbard was conceding that Hillary Clinton lost the election, which Democrats claim Donald Trump stole by colluding with Russia. The former First Lady had been repeating the claim that she defeated Donald Trump, telling PBS “Obviously, I can beat him again,” and that she was panting for a “rematch.”

With Tulsi Gabbard, as with Trump, Clinton saw the evil hand of Russia at work. “She’s the favorite of the Russians,” the former First Lady told David Plouffe. According to the 2016 loser, Tulsi Gabbard will be a third-party candidate propped up by Trump and the Russians. Former UN boss Samantha Power tweeted that a Gabbard candidacy would be a “windfall” for Trump, Assad, Putin, and Xi.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called President Trump an “imposter” and as she refused to send the articles of impeachment to the house, Pelosi called Sen. Mitch McConnell a “rogue leader.” Democrat Tulsi Gabbard is not stepping down and the opponent of “regime-change wars,” now joints Trump and McConnell on the Democrats’ enemies list.

As socialists Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders surge to the fore, the so-called “blue dog” Democrats, allegedly dedicated to fiscal conservatism, have become an increasingly rare bread. The party is now dominated by those who, in the style of a junkyard dog, bark at anybody and everybody. In that role, the junkyard dog Democrats guarantee escalating conflict down the road.

Despite the Mueller report, which showed no collusion, Nancy Pelosi recently proclaimed “all roads lead to Putin” and “this has been going on for 2 1/2 years.”  Three Democrats defected on the impeachment vote and New Jersey Democrat Jeff Van Drew is joining the Republicans.

Meanwhile, as Speaker Pelosi withholds the articles from the Senate, putting a trial on hold, Democrats are calling for yet more articles of impeachment.

President Trump appears to be taking it all in stride.

“Everything we’re seeing from Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer suggests that they’re in real doubt about the evidence they’ve brought forth so far not being good enough, and are very, very urgently seeking a way to find some more evidence,” Trump tweeted. “The only way to make this work,” the president added, “is to mount some kind of public pressure to demand witnesses, but McConnell has the votes and he can run this trial anyway he wants to.”