At first, we thought of “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, but that fiasco was due to miscommunication. A better analogy is the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The vainglorious George Armstrong Custer attacked a massive group of allied native Americans lead by Chief Crazy Horse. Inadequate information and bad tactics doomed the endeavor. A divided force led to an uncoordinated attack. The rest is history. “Custer’s Last Stand” has long been held as an example of poor leadership resulting in a disaster by failing to respect an enemy. The current blind charge of the Democrats into impeachment seems destined to have the same result. Custer’s scouts told him the village he was approaching was by far the largest they had ever seen. A quick calculation should’ve alerted him to a superior force and little chance of victory. He attacked anyway. Similarly, the rush to impeachment stands little chance of success in the face of superior Republican numbers in the Senate. Custer could’ve waited and joined other forces in the area to fight later on more favorable terms. With an election just a little over a year away, why give President Trump a big Senate victory on election eve? Adding this latest Trump stumble to the long list of reasons to not re-elect him would seem a more prudent course. After all, he’s a relatively unpopular president, and the Democrats had a sizeable victory in 2018. Why not just build on your advantages?

The impeachment inquiry is based on our President asking the Ukrainian President in a phone call to look into the circumstances of Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s employment in his country. The charge is this asking a foreign country to provide dirt on a political opponent. Possibly this would be an illegal campaign contribution. The President says he was only talking about corruption, but military aid was on hold at the time. It just looks bad. Trump’ s speech and actions often lack clarity. However, the President didn’t ask a question many other people were dying to ask. Hunter Biden, in 2013, was dumped out of the US Navy reserves for testing positive for drugs. Soon after, he lands a job on the board of a possibly corrupt large Ukrainian gas company. He was paid $50,000 to $83,00 a month over three years. Before this employment, he had no known record of expertise in the Gas Industry or even Ukraine. Lots of people want how they can get a deal like that. During that time, guess who was the US’s point person dealing with and controlling aid to that troubled country? Oh, it was Vice President Joe Biden. Just on the face of it, this looks like a classic example of the DC swamp people hate. Joe Biden claims he broke no laws. In any case, he says never discussed business with Hunter. There he is playing golf with Hunter, another board member of the same gas company. Who are you going to believe, Joe or your lying eyes?

Bill Clinton staved off losing his presidency through impeachment even though there is no question he lied under oath in a sexual harassment suit. Proves how hard it is to have a successful impeachment. Maybe this is for the best. After all, you’re overturning an election. In effect, you disenfranchise those who voted for the President. It was no small help to Bill Clinton when several of his Republican accusers were shown to have had affairs. Some were forced to resign. Accusers have to be like Caesar’s wife, above reproach. Don’t cast the first stone if you’re a sinner. If you’re claiming the President is rotten, you can’t be emitting a stench. This why Joe Biden will be the first victim of this move to impeachment. Legal or not, his son’s dealings off his father’s position smell terrible. Because it is central to the complaint, it will be at the forefront. Every time you bring up the phone call, the Bidens are front and center. Joe Biden can’t be the nominee of the Democratic Party while this impeachment goes on. Joe is the first battle casualty.

Drumming out Joe Biden will lower the ultimate Democratic nominee’s chances of winning the election. Joe presently is the choice of the less radical Democrats. No other seemingly moderate has made a striking impression. A big part of his support is made up of older folks, especially among black voters. These are the Democrat’s most reliable voters. So far, they haven’t shown any passion for the remaining left-wing front runners. Dumping Biden would be a sign of disrespect. Worse it might show disdain for Biden’s former boss, Barrack Obama, just when you’re trying to put his winning coalition back together. They probably won’t vote for Trump, but they might not turn out for a left-wing standard bearer either.

Thank goodness, the Democrats haven’t pushed impeachment before on weak grounds. Oh wait, their Billionaire benefactor Tom Steyer has been pushing impeachment from the beginning of the Trump Administration via a well-financed ad campaign. For years the Democrats looked to the Mueller Investigation to trigger an all-out impeachment onslaught. Was there ever an hour on CNN or MSNBC when impeachment isn’t brought up? When the Mueller report turned up no evidence of Russian collusion, a large number of Democrats at al levels screaming for impeachment were hung out to dry. Now they’re grasping at a phone call. Unfortunately, this recalls the little boy who cried wolf. You’ve cried for impeachment so long; many have tuned you out. Recently many Democrats even wanted to impeach Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh om with grounds. The word impeachment has just been way overused.

Worse, the origins of the Mueller investigation are under investigation. A justice department inspector general’s report on this is due anytime. More ominous is US Attorney John Durham is conducting a much more extensive examination. Now, these may well be duds on par with the Mueller Report, but again, they may well turn up some real stuff. There might be indictments. All this, along with the Biden dealings, will be part and parcel of the impeachment inquiry. It was all in the phone call. While asking the Ukrainian President for info on the Bidens could be construed as a campaign law violation, asking for help in an ongoing investigation isn’t. Remember the favor Trump asked the Ukrainian President for was cooperation with the Justice Department inquiry, not about the Bidens. At the least, it will muddy the waters, but it also has great potential to make the whole query backfire on the Democrats. Just think of the impact of anti-Trump conspirators arrested in the middle of the hearings.

Unseating the President would require at least 20 Republican votes in the Senate so that a hyper-partisan attempt would be doomed. You have to appeal to a good number of Republicans. Speaker Pelosi put Adam Schiff out there as the point person. Could there be a worse choice? Schiff, for years, claimed he had seen the facts the Mueller investigation had that would bring about Trump’s downfall. He lied. His recent actions have done nothing to regain any Republican or independent confidence. We now know his staff worked with the whistle blower before any of this came to light. Failing to disclose it looks terrible. Couldn’t the speaker find someone that has some rapport with the opposition? Maybe in the present circumstances, there aren’t any. Where is the leadership? Where is the plan? How will you amass the numbers you’ll need to win?

Maybe the Democrats will get lucky, and something will turn up to save this footslog to impeachment, but the best odds are on this turning into a disaster. Custer was confident he would destroy Crazy Horse. Still, the Chief has a vast Black Hills Monument. We remember George for the massacre.