Two Party Opera by Brian Carroll for September 27, 2019

Now let me see, is someone somewhere whistling Dixie?

Hopefully Hair Groppenfuhrer is given a paper gift (impeachment and conviction) before he celebrates his 4 year anniversary as president. Congratulations, Mr. Carroll, and many more years of happiness.

Is it Hail To The Chief for 500?

O.K., so, who will be the first to say what the piece of music is???

As an oncologist I can say that we need to amputate.

Congrats to the Carrolls on your anniversary. (If my middle-school-teacher-addled brain was in control, I’d post some pithy comment about having a wonderful wooden celebration, but I’ll be good and not do that…)

Republicans are always the worst parts.

I can’t say that it was all that original, but conservative pundit David Brooks put it pretty succinctly: all former presidents at least tried (or at least wanted to) serve America, while Trump always wants America to serve HIM. I’d really love to see Congress serve that wild bore [sic] on a platter…….

Mr. Carroll, please pardon my lack of historical knowledge, but what’s the significance of using John Quincy Adams in this context?

I dunno, Brian. Shooting the Constitution in the emoluments clause in broad daylight on 5th avenue is pretty original.

I wish I could read music.

It’s a little annoying how people gloss right over the “misdemeanor” part of Section 4, Article II — just as Brian depicts Nixon doing here. Misdemeanors can be anything from petty theft to disturbing the peace or drunk and disorderly. But they are always lesser crimes than felonies. Trump commits a misdemeanor just by getting out of bed in the morning.

The House of Representatives gets to decide what constitutes “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” — in this, that body is sovereign, a fact the Constitution explicitly states. If the House members were to agree (by a simple majority vote, as I understand it) to draft an article of impeachment to the Senate on a charge of jaywalking, then that’s its prerogative.

The Nixon “oncologist” remark in the strip puts me in mind of an actual Nixon quote about the media, from a set of 1984 interview tapes: " “I don’t mind the microscope but, boy, when they use a proctoscope, that’s going too far.”