Adam Schiff Isn’t A Constitutional Scholar, But He Plays One On Impeachment TV

Schiff and his colleagues have repeatedly made the point the Founders who authored the Constitution were intent on dividing the powers of government between the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary to guard against the rise of any form of monarchy akin to the one they cast off in their struggle to gain independence. Placing in the hands of the Congress the power to impeach and remove a renegade president was the ultimate expression of this concern.

Sermonizing to a captive audience of 100 senators, Schiff repeatedly referenced a quote by Alexander Hamilton describing his fear that a demagogue could rise up and shatter the foundations of democracy.

“…a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper…despotic in his ordinary demeanor—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty…when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity…it may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”

Paul Blumenthal, reporter for the Huffington Post whose beat is campaign finance, congressional investigations and elections and a former senior writer for The Sunlight Foundation, admonished Schiff’s revisionist history noting, “The quote comes from a 10,000-plus word note Hamilton, then the Secretary of the Treasury, wrote in reply to a letter from President George Washington in 1792. Washington’s letter listed a series of ‘objections’ he had heard from political friends and foes to Hamilton’s proposed plan to raise taxes on producers in order to finance bondholder debts held by wealthy financial investors. This was the nation’s earliest plan to redistribute wealth upwards and concentrate power among the rich.”

Aaron Blake, senior political writer for The Washington Post noted the same deceptive use of the quote, “He’s wrong that Hamilton offered it in the context of impeachment; it was from a note the then-Treasury Secretary wrote in response to Washington about tax policy and the letter doesn’t even mention impeachment.”  Blake put an even finer point on the matter.  The letter was written in 1792; five years after the Constitution was drafted.

Mollie Hemingway, Senior Editor for The Federalist opined, “At some point, the difference between the competent and highly skilled attorneys on the White House team and the bumbling and somewhat mediocre team of House managers was so pronounced it was almost embarrassing.  It was as if one side belonged in front of the Supreme Court and the other failed to make the finals at a middle school debate tournament.”

What this nation has witnessed over the course of the last two weeks has been the bastardization of the Constitution and the deliberate twisting of the Framers’ words by the Democrats in this political charade.

Adam Schiff doesn’t give a shit about the Constitution.  When this despicable trial is over he will crumple it up and toss it in his closet along with his soiled underwear and sweaty socks.