Reece Gardner: Impeachment proceedings update

Something to think about: blessed are the flexible for they are not easily bent out of shape.

In last week's column, I talked about the Impeachment situation, and I want to add a few thoughts to that today. But first, please note that Early Voting begins next Wednesday, Oct. 16, and will run through Friday, Nov. 1, 8:30 AM til 5:00 PM at the Lenoir County Board of Elections, 110 S. Heritage St., Kinston, and from 10:00 AM til 7:00 PM, at Teachers Memorial Gym. Polls will also be open at La Grange Community Building from 8:30 AM til 5:00 PM on October 29, 30, 31, and November 1. Contests are for Kinston City Council, Mayor of LaGrange and Town of LaGrange Board of Commissioners. In next week's column, I will discuss this further.

Now an update on the Impeachment situation. It was interesting to see CNN Commentator Van Jones, not a Trump supporter, say that those who are making a big show of how they want to impeach President Trump seem to not understand that these claims are actually helping to rally Trump supporters. This contention seems to have some validity to it when within hours after the "announcement" some $36 million in small-dollar donations flowed into the Trump campaign.

Also, as reports from RealClear Politics pointed out, the White House has now publicly released both the "whistleblower" complaint and the transcript of the call - the one that the Whistleblower hadn't even heard - yet felt entitled to use as the basis for anonymously accusing the President of the U.S. of committing a crime. Another occurrence during the past few days that bears this out was the calling of Kurt Volker, former U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Negotiations, to give his view of the Ukraine-Biden-Trump situation.

It had been widely reported by various Impeachment proponents that Volker's testimony, presented to no less than three Congressional committees, would be all that was needed to promptly move Impeachment proceedings forward. Instead, all reports coming forward after that testimony apparently completely exonerated the President of any wrongdoing.

Two events that occurred immediately after these hearings were very interesting: One, Trump supporters on the committees wanted Volker's testimony to be made public, while impeachment supporters wanted it kept sealed, and, two, Congressman Adam Schiff, for the first time in my recent memory, had no comment! Let's hope Congress will soon tire of this charade and get busy actually representing the people who sent them there.

Now for a little humor: James is walking on a downtown street one day and sees his old high school friend, Harry. "Harry, how are you?", he asks.

"Not so good," says Harry.

James asks, "Why, what happened?"

"Well", says Harry, "I just went bankrupt and I still have to feed my family."

"It could have been worse," James replies calmly.

A month later, James sees Harry again, and asks, "So, how are things going now?"

"Terrible," says Harry, "Our house burned down last week."

James again replies, "It could have been worse."

Two months later the two met again. James asks, "Are things going better now?", to which Harry replies, "Things are going worse. My wife left me and I am now homeless."

Again James says, "It could have been worse."

But this time Harry grabs James and shouts, "You keep saying it could have been worse, how could it possibly be worse?"

James replies, "It could have been me."

The views of columnists are not necessarily those of Neuse News.