If you think Trump’s behavior is the worst in American history, you might be insane.This week, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee trotted out a trio of dispassionate legal experts to explain why the impeachment of Donald Trump was justified. They were there to bring a veneer of gravitas and erudition to what’s been, until now, a highly partisan affair.

But however smart people such as Michael Gerhardt, distinguished professor of constitutional law at University of North Carolina, might be, they aren’t immune from peddling partisan absurdities. Once Gerhardt argued that Trump’s conduct was “worse than the misconduct of any prior president,” we no longer had any intellectual obligation to take him seriously on the topic. [Read More]

Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother (Amazon)

The Mother of the Father of our Country.

Mary Ball Washington was an unlikely candidate to be the mother of history’s most famous revolutionary. In fact, George Washington’s first fight for independence was from his controlling, singular mother.

Stubborn, aristocratic Mary Ball Washington was entrenched in the Old World ways of her ancestors, dismissing the American experiment even as her son led the successful rebellion against the crown. During his youth, ambitious George dove into the hard-scrabble work of a surveyor and rose through the ranks of the fledgling colonial army, even as his overprotective mother tried to discourage these efforts. [Read More]

Schiff’s Report Will Not Attract New Impeachment Supporters (National Review)

The most striking thing about the impeachment report filed Tuesday afternoon by the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) is how unapologetically partisan it is.

Don’t get me wrong. Chairman Schiff is fiercely partisan and no one would have expected him to call it down the middle. A serious impeachment effort, however, has to try to attract support from Republicans and independents. Schiff gives us not a feint in that direction. His narrative is the Democratic base’s political case against Trump. There is no pretense of at least presenting the other side of the story, even if only for the purpose of refuting it. [Read More]

Pelosi fumes: ‘I don’t hate anybody. I was raised Catholic’ (Catholic News Agency)

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Thursday rejected the suggestion that she “hates” President Donald Trump, and said that her Catholic faith prevents her from hating anyone.

“I don’t hate anybody. I was raised in a Catholic house, we don’t hate anybody—not anybody in the world,” said Pelosi. She had been asked by a journalist during her weekly press briefing if she “hates President Trump.” [Read More]

Biden Angrily Issues Push-Up Challenge to Voter Who Criticized Him (Rolling Stone)

Democratic candidate and former vice president Joe Biden got into a feisty exchange with a voter at a town hall in Iowa following his endorsement by John Kerry on Thursday, calling an attendee a “damn liar” and challenging him to a push-up contest.

“We all know Trump has been messing around in Ukraine,” the voter said to Biden, adding, “You on the other hand sent your son over there to get a job and work for a gas company and [who] had no experience in natural gas. You’re selling access to the president just like he is.” [Read More]