Last night, the House Judiciary Committee began opening statements prior to the debate of House Resolution 755. House Resolution 755 is the bill for Articles of Impeachment against President Donald J. Trump. Most of the Democrat members’ opening remarks were self-serving re-election commercials. Representative Doug Collins’ opening statement was on fire.

As the hearing began, Chairman Jerrold Nadler, in his opening statement, repeated, nearly verbatim, his opening statement from the December 9 Judiciary Committee hearing. Why write anything new, when you have nothing new? Zoe Lofgren (CA) and others claimed that, last week, Representatives were “presented direct evidence about the President’s actions to threaten our national security, undermine the integrity of the next election, and his violations of his oath.” Representative David Cicilline took it a step further and accused the President of full-on cheating in the 2020 election. Others, like Hakeem Jeffries, wrapped themselves in prayer and the Bible. They all solemnly intoned their heartbreak at having to take this awful step. Considering that they have been working on this for three years, it was decidedly insincere.

On the Republican side, Louis Gohmert, John Ratcliffe, and Matt Gaetz were righteously indignant in their comments. After all, the Democrats claimed that Republicans were ignoring the facts and the Constitution and pledging their loyalty to President Trump. And, Gohmert managed to drop the name of the non-whistleblower without calling him the whistleblower. Just named him in a group of witnesses. Watch it here.

Mike Johnson of Louisiana made an important note that has bothered me. The Democrats seem to have forgotten that there is a third branch of government, the judiciary. Whenever there is a dispute between the Executive and Legislative branches, the Judiciary is there to settle the issue. The Democrats are in a rush to impeach Donald Trump. He has appealed to the Judiciary to settle the dispute over subpoenas of Executive branch officials. Democrats don’t have the time to allow the natural Constitutional order.

My hero of last night’s circular firing squad was Doug Collins. He was thorough and impassioned. Bonus points: Doug Collins is far more telegenic than Jaba the Hut Jerrold Nadler.

Here is the video of Doug Collins’ opening statement:

Nadler’s face sitting next to Collins is a laugh riot.

You can read Collins’ prepared statement here. Although he stuck to the outline of his statement, he was off the cuff for most of it.

I love that Collins called out Adam Schiff for the release of the phone numbers called by Devin Nunes and reporter John Solomon. In his jihad to impeach the President, Adam Schiff has trampled on individual rights and privacy like nothing I have seen in my lifetime. Calling out Schiff for abuse of power and obstruction made my heart happy.

As Collins said, the real legacy of this impeachment hearing will not be the removal of Donald Trump. It will be the institutional damage to this country. The Democrats put a dagger in the heart of the Congressional institution, yes. More importantly, the Democrats are willing to put a dagger through the heart of the Constitution in order to teach us deplorables a lesson.

It is all about the “Big Lie.”

The Big Lie is what Democrats have told the American people for the last 3 years:

That the ends justify the means and this #ShamImpeachment is acceptable because the Democrats dislike this president so much, so urgently. pic.twitter.com/RGeOCkmDF7

— Rep. Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) December 12, 2019

I know I say this every time, but this is not really about Donald Trump. This is about the basket of deplorables and irredeemables who voted for Trump. As Doug Collins also said, this impeachment is about a 30 second commercial for the Democrats to appease their base. “We impeached Trump.”

The markup and voting for the Impeachment of Donald Trump continues in the House Judiciary Committee.

Photo Credit: Official Portrait of Doug Collins in the Public Domain