Now That We're Going to Have an Open Seat...Conyers Resigns

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I think there are tons of politicians on both sides guilty of such wrongdoing. Personally, I think anyone caught harassing or assaulting should get kicked out, as should any members who participated or knew about a cover-up. I don't think this current public outing of assaulters has much to do with the President directly, nor do I think the Conyers situation affects the balance of power in Washington: there is no plausible scenario where John Conyers wouldn't be replaced by a liberal Democrat.

I am a conservative, and no fan whatsoever of the President, but I think there is little chance of impeachment. There are several reasons, among them: 1) the earliest the Democrats might control the House is January 2019; 2) desire by Congress to introduce articles of impeachment for offenses more than a few members of Congress are thought to be guilty of themselves is low; 3) willingness of Democrats from districts Trump carried to impeach will be low; 4) the ability to get 67 Senators to agree to convict would be very difficult. In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the President until Jan 20, 2021.

Tig3rzhark, one tiny pet peeve: in your post I think you meant to write "If the House and the Senate..." "Congress" refers to both chambers. It is sort of like saying "I love my parents and my mom." That error has annoyed me for ages. And everyone does it...

[Wesley Mouch]

I think there are tons of politicians on both sides guilty of such wrongdoing. Personally, I think anyone caught harassing or assaulting should get kicked out...

On assault, I agree wholeheartedly. On harassment, we should be more careful. Harassment is unacceptable, but its also a more ambiguous crime. Let's not allow accusations to be enough. I know defending the perp is unpopular, but its also our law to legally presume innocence.

...
there is no plausible scenario where John Conyers wouldn't be replaced by a liberal Democrat.

There was also no plausible scenario where Trump would be elected President. Many implausible things are happening.

Let me add a #5 to your list. Trump is a womanizer. Unless he acted inappropriately [[not just talk), he's safe. The people with bigger problems are the Frankens who publicly say they are protectors of women, but are [[he's admitted it) really harassers. Nobody was surprised by Trump being vulgar and offensive. Everybody was surprised by Franken.

[aj3647]

On assault, I agree wholeheartedly. On harassment, we should be more careful. Harassment is unacceptable, but its also a more ambiguous crime. Let's not allow accusations to be enough. I know defending the perp is unpopular, but its also our law to legally presume innocence.

"Innocent until proven guilty" applies to the court of law, not the court of public opinion. We're all entitled to our opinions. Nobody is calling for Conyers, Franken, or most of these guys to be charged with crimes. And in fact, almost none of them will be. Roy Moore is not going to be doing a perp walk; not tomorrow, not a week from now, not a year from now. Nor will Kevin Spacey most likely. Or Charlie Rose. Or John Conyers. Virtually none of these men who have been in the news recently for this kind of behavior will ever face anything more harsh than simple damage to their reputations and careers, or perhaps a civil suit at worst. Harvey Weinstein and perhaps one or two others may face actual criminal charges, but that will be the exception, not the rule.

Let me add a #5 to your list. Trump is a womanizer. Unless he acted inappropriately [[not just talk), he's safe. The people with bigger problems are the Frankens who publicly say they are protectors of women, but are [[he's admitted it) really harassers. Nobody was surprised by Trump being vulgar and offensive. Everybody was surprised by Franken.

Your argument seems to imply that it's a good thing to set the expectations for your own behavior so insanely low that no one will be surprised when you do something awful. So you're saying that Trump, being a proud lifelong misogynist and womanizer, is better than Franken because we shouldn't be surprised when Trump treats women as sex objects instead of human beings because he's fundamentally a terrible human being? That's the PREFERRED option here?

[mwilbert]

1) Conyers is very unlikely to be beaten in an election in that district. He's really old, and maybe he will resign under pressure, but if he runs, he has an extremely good chance of winning.

2) Lots of things are not plausible, but that doesn't make them equally unlikely. The US is more-or-less evenly split between Democrats and Republican voters, plus or minus a few points. Conyers' district is D+32, so let's call a Republican winning that district very implausible.

3) There is more than one way that Trump could leave office before Jan 2020; impeachment is only one of them. Electing Democrats in 2018 probably increases the chances he departs early, but not by a lot.