History rewards substance, not pomp. It’s always useful, when considering insults hurled at a particular public person, to remember Lincoln was burned in effigy on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Profiles in courage are just that, popularity doesn’t enter into the picture. Had Lyndon Johnson not pushed through landmark civil rights and anti-poverty legislation, deeds that rendered him synonymous with treachery in his native south, his legacy would have been a big bunch of nothing. Instead of a legislative giant, LBJ would have become the guy who wasted Camelot’s promise and merely mired us in the pointless quagmire of Vietnam.
Wednesday’s orgy of oratory on the House floor was indeed for the ages, and will become more than just a footnote for historians to assess. Nothing could more effectively clarify the crossroads we have reached than the polarization on display throughout a debate with a foregone conclusion, a drama with an ending the audience knew was coming. But predictability can still shock the senses, and the GOP specializes in both lately.
The hyenas of an emerging American totalitarianism dutifully lined up in service to their Scar. Throughout the day they most resembled a collection of rappers, squaring off to prove who could use their allotted minute most creatively. Of course that is a profound diss to the Ice Cubes of this world, who have more imagination than the lot of the Republican House caucus combined. But on they carried forth, hour after hour, with nastiness to spare, directed over and over at the same usual suspects.
Nobody was reviled more this week than Adam Schiff of California, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Throughout the historic histrionics he was attacked with everything from calls for his indictment to scurrilous innuendos about his agenda. Trumpism only takes the low road, but Schiff’s attackers traveled by way of gutters all day long. Incredibly, much of the hideous invective was screeched while Schiff was present, taking his shift steering the debate. And his stoicism in response – a chuckle here, a clever rejoinder there – reinforced the understated professionalism he has embodied through the sorry saga of Trump’s overt corruption. Courageous and unflappable are the best adjectives available.
A common fantasy most indulge is the hypothetical of how we would act in a crisis, when the chips are down and peril comes calling. However, it’s doubtful being constantly signaled out by an unhinged POTUS with millions of acolytes ready and willing to absorb his hatred of the villainy he has assigned you finds its way into many such scenarios. Welcome to “Shifty Schiff’s” world.
That the main of House Republicans parrot Trump’s disgraceful personal libel against a colleague both disqualifies them as anything other than the clear and present dangers to governance they’ve become, and accentuates the debt of gratitude we owe Schiff…. come what may. The lines now drawn could not be clearer, nor the stakes higher. Flinching is not an option as one of America’s major political parties unites around sedition, in full service to a corrupt traitor. It’s a time where diligent fortitude equates with heroism, and that’s exactly what Schiff is delivering.
An ironic sidebar to Schiff’s stewardship of the impeachment investigation process is that, since his election to the House in 2001, he has been exactly the bipartisan-seeking, get-a-deal-done compromiser progressives would be looking to primary. On everything from authorizing the Iraq invasion (he admitted it was a bad mistake) to approving military budgets to supporting Saudi Arabia’s initial foray into Yemen, Schiff has been in line with across-the-aisle sensibilities. In fact, before Trump was elected, the issue Schiff may have been most ardent about was reducing the helicopter noise bedeviling many of his local constituents, a continent away from DC. Now he is MAGA enemy #1.
Indeed, it’s hard to find a better example of the times making a man than the case of Adam Schiff. And what he has lacked in flash, Schiff has made up for with relentless focus on gathering and presenting the facts, the oversight function. While his opposite number, Devin Nunes, has from day one competed to be Trump’s champion Capitol Hill bootlicker, sparing no effort to breathe life into outlandish and fully debunked conspiracy theories, Schiff has been about timelines produced from sworn testimony. While Nunes has his own cot over at Fox News, Schiff has dutifully made the media rounds, calmly tolerating insidious false equivalence while keeping America apprised of the facts, first in regard to the Mueller investigation and then the Ukrainian scandal. At no time has he entertained what wasn’t already there or made himself the story. In other words, he has been a solid professional exactly when that’s been needed most.
When old Sam Irvin was getting the goods on Richard Nixon he had to deal with a lot of different pressures and stresses. One thing he never had to be concerned about was the POTUS calling him “a deranged person… a very sick man, who lies” and should be indicted. Not a day now passes that Trump doesn’t incessantly insult Schiff and hiss to his wretched core their most visceral hatred toward him is appropriate. If it bothers Schiff he doesn’t let on about it, remaining his usual unflappable self, keeping his eye on the ball he is most responsible for pushing forward.
Whatever Trumpism still has in store for the US, whatever dangerous indignities it still may inflict, he has at least been stained by the impeachment his behavior fully warranted. That corruption was meticulously cataloged and presented for consideration largely due to the efforts of one man. Wednesday evening, as Schiff yielded himself the remaining six minutes of his time to make a final Democratic statement about why impeaching Donald Trump was the only option the rule of law and the Constitution allowed those obliged to satisfy their oath of office, he was interrupted by cowardly representatives of a mob no longer concerned with such requisites of democracy. At that moment it was easy to appreciate this is only the beginning of what will be the gravest crisis America has faced. Yet and still, it was also a fully appropriate time to feel grateful hope and good faith are still served by people like Adam Schiff. Nothing is more important right now. BC