House ‘impeachment’ circus frays Democratic unity

House Democrats heading into a weekly closed-door planning meeting were eager to get back to the legislative agenda, but the media remained focused on the hearing and the party’s efforts, led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, to ferret out the evidence many liberal Democrats are seeking to impeach President Trump.

Liberal Democrats ratcheted up the impeachment frenzy Tuesday when Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced a resolution calling on the House Judiciary panel to open an impeachment inquiry into Justice Brett Kavanaugh over new, but now in question, proof of allegations of sexual misconduct dating back to his teenage years.

Moderates, meanwhile, fear the impeachment saturation could doom their reelection efforts.

“Am I concerned? The answer is yes!” Democratic Florida Rep. Donna Shalala told the Washington Examiner. “In my district, I’m not getting asked about impeachment. I’m being asked about healthcare, I’m being asked about the environment, and about infrastructure. It’s not like around the country they are thinking about impeachment. It’s a Washington phenomenon as far as I can tell.”

Shalala and other Democrats now regularly express concern privately to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the wall-to-wall impeachment effort by House Democrats is blocking their legislative agenda from public view. How can they convince constituents they are working on lowering prescription drug prices, some Democratic lawmakers have complained, when the news cycle revolves primarily around Nadler’s weekly confrontational hearings related to impeachment?

Pelosi tells lawmakers to stay “on message” about the Democratic agenda, which includes a House-passed gun background check bill and will soon include a prescription drug measure Shalala is eager to advance.

“She’s doing what she can do,” Shalala said. “She’s saying, ‘Keep your eye on the ball.’ That is what she is saying to us.”

Pelosi has privately clashed with Nadler over his aggressive impeachment agenda, arguing the public does not support it and it does not have the 218 votes to pass on the House floor. So far, about 137 Democrats say they would vote to open an official impeachment inquiry.

But Pelosi cites public polling that shows little enthusiasm for impeachment. A Politico / Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found just 37% of voters back impeaching Trump.

Pelosi adamantly denies the House is conducting a formal impeachment investigation, but she has stopped short of criticizing Nadler and has said she supports his efforts. “Our relationship is fine,” Nadler told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “I’m not going to comment beyond that.”

The relationship between the two veteran lawmakers has become strained. While Pelosi has blocked the House from formally voting to open an impeachment inquiry, Nadler declared he is authorized to begin one even without a House vote.

Tuesday’s event marked the first official hearing in the impeachment inquiry. It was a nearly six-hour event loaded with made-for-TV theatrics from both the lawmakers and Lewandowski, the lone witness Democrats believe can help prove Trump tried to block a two-year investigation into his campaign.

The “ridiculous” hearing, as one senior Democrat labeled it, led Tuesday’s news coverage, and reporters swarmed lawmakers Wednesday to talk about the fireworks.

“It looked like a lot of theater yesterday, when you have witnesses that come to a committee and don’t want to tell the committee anything,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said. “It actually shows the administration’s contempt for Congress. Then it becomes ridiculous. That is what we had yesterday, and I think it’s clear that is what we are going to continue to have.”

Democratic Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline lamented a poll that indicates voters believe Congress mostly conducts investigations and little else. He blamed the media.

“There was virtually no coverage on the work we have done,” said Cicilline, who backs impeachment. “Part of the responsibility is frankly on the journalist to also cover the work that’s being done by the Democratic majority. We are doing our best to communicate all of that, but you know, people are interested, and there is a lot more cable coverage of investigations and oversight. It’s better television.”

Few Democrats, meanwhile, are eager to launch a second impeachment inquiry regarding Kavanaugh.

A seemingly blockbuster New York Times story published Saturday about Kavanaugh’s conduct in college unraveled in the following days, and lawmakers in the House and Senate quickly cooled to the idea trying to remove him from the Supreme Court, despite Democratic presidential candidates calling for his ouster.

Nadler, whose panel would lead such an inquiry, dismissed the idea outright.

“We have our hands full with impeaching the president right now, and that’s going to take up our limited resources and time for a while,” Nadler said during an interview Monday on WNYC.