The crazy thing is, even as someone who tends to think pretty poorly of this President, I don't think this Russia stuff is going to add up to the smoking gun people seem to think. The only thing that makes it seem so bad is the whitehouse's efforts to continually lie about it and cover things up. Even if an investigation is able to show close and continuing contacts going back years between the President's close advisors and Kremlin intelligence operatives that's still a far cry from a smoking gun actually proving the President conspired, you're always going to have cutouts and middlemen, even if he knew something. And in this partisan media environment there are always going to be plenty of people with alternative theories or not believing the ties - there are still people who think OJ is innocent. I doubt anyone is ever going to produce a tape showing unambiguous collusion - and that's what it would take for impeachment. President Trump is surrounded by a bunch of unscrupulous cronies who sidled up to and made money off Putin and his allies for years - no shit. He's also surrounded by folks who have done the same thing with other authoritarian leaders and tons of shady corporate characters - especially from the fossil fuel sector and real estate. Shit, if you look at the President's record in real estate he might count as one of those shady characters. Ultimately I just don't see any of that being so out of the blue for his supporters that it's going to change a bunch of votes or party affiliations. Just my opinion.
Agree on all accounts. I think it's really unfortunate that the Democrats are getting whipped up for possible impeachment proceedings that are likely not going to happen. Really, the grand conspiracy that Trump is some kind of Manchurian candidate working for Putin is a total non-starter. The much more likely explanation, I think, is a more banal conspiracy: Trump was probably trying to cultivate financial interests in Russia, some of which may have been on the very shady side, or needed help fundraising for his campaign and so sought to curry favor with Russian oligarchs. While probably not illegal, let alone impeachable offenses, a smart electorate *should* look at that and say "Yeah, this guy cannot govern in the best interest of the United States with these financial ties." Unfortunately what we wanted was a wall and nebulous promises of manufacturing jobs returning to the United States.
What I think *will* happen is that one of his campaign cronies (probably Mike Flynn, or perhaps that psychopath Roger Stone) will flip and testify on Paul Manafort. Manafort, I think, is going to jail. Out of everyone in the entire operation, his dealings are the absolute shadiest. From the absolutely disgusting consulting work he did in Russia way back in 2005, to the corrupt off-the-books dealings he did with Viktor Yanukovych, there's no way that he doesn't get implicated in something.
I do believe, however, that there was at least one person or persons in the Trump campaign who facilitated the DNC and RNC hacking last year. It probably wasn't directed by the campaign, but as indicated by the unverified intelligence dossier that Christopher Steele released last year, members of the campaign funneled money to the Russian hacker groups purportedly responsible for the hacking. I just doubt that even if Trump himself were involved in payments to these groups, it's highly unlikely that he would be implicated.
Even if absolutely none of this plays out, I could see some of these guys testifying under oath, and getting a slap on the wrist for perjury. None of them can keep their stories straight for two seconds. Really, this is a blessing for Democrats. The administration is so poorly-run that they trip themselves up without any Democrat involvement whatsoever. Can you imagine if a Cruz or Rubio had come in with these kinds of financial ties? You'd get absolutely stonewalled for four years.
ETA: As further evidence of the near-impossibility of impeachment, just look back at the Watergate scandal. It took over two years, with a Democrat-controlled congress, and Nixon admitting to the cover-up on tape, to finally approve impeachment. There's no way in hell that Republicans are going to recommend impeachment proceedings, even with provable collusion.
:-"
