House Speaker Mike Johnson had a plan. He had planned to finally—finally—send the articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate this week, even though the impeachment, as he well knows, is dead on arrival because even Republican senators can’t get it up to convict.
But now, according to The Hill, Johnson has a new plan. And the new plan is to keep waiting.
“To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week,” a Johnson spokesperson said.
What difference could one week make? Probably none. There is so little enthusiasm for this ridiculous Republican stunt to try to embarrass the Biden administration that Johnson couldn’t even get the impeachment through the House the first time he tried. Despite his efforts, he managed to embarrass only himself.
Johnson tried again a week later and just barely pulled it off, but he and his fellow Republicans have been sitting on their impeachment since February waiting for … well, it isn’t entirely clear what they’ve been waiting for.
Several of their colleagues in the Senate have made it pretty clear that they couldn’t care less about this impeachment. So much so that some have suggested they might even help Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer dismiss the whole thing without a trial.
Because while the Republicans in the House have convinced themselves that Mayorkas did very bad things like supporting President Joe Biden’s policies, Republicans in the Senate are willing to admit that’s not an actual crime.
“If there is a policy difference, it’s with the president,” Mitt Romney said, “not the secretary that reports to him.”
And in case that isn’t clear enough, Romney told Axios he doesn’t “think the constitutional standard of high crime and misdemeanor has been met.”
Even Romney’s fellow Utahn Mike Lee, who apparently made the request to postpone, doesn’t sound all that jazzed about the impeachment trial.
He said he was “very grateful” that Johnson was willing to delay the impeachment process yet another week, under the theory that if the Senate gets the paperwork earlier in the week, it will somehow change senators’ hearts and minds and make them more eager to carry out this charade.
“It’s much better for us to do this at the beginning of a legislative week rather than toward the end of one and I thank him for doing that,” Lee said.
Okay, sure. Just wait a little bit longer and the Senate will come around. But perhaps, just to be safe, Johnson should give it another week after that. And another week after that. And another week ….