Sounding off: Common sense is biggest loser in impeachment

Near the beginning of President Trump’s impeachment trial, one of the House managers suggested that senators shouldn’t leave their common sense at the door. That message fell on the deaf ears of most Republicans.

Common sense would have dictated that jurors hear witnesses and see documents. Common sense would have Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell denied jury box seats, having declared their verdict before the trial began. Common sense would have had Chief Justice John Roberts lecturing the president’s defense team for continued lying about undeniable facts. Common sense would call into question the role and propriety of Trump’s chief counsel Pat Cipolline, who is said to be a firsthand witness to Trump’s wrongdoing.

Trump can be expected to claim that the trial exonerates him. Future revelations, certain to become known, will, I predict, prove otherwise. I look forward to Bob Woodward’s next book.

There are no winners, only losers , in this so-called trial. The Constitution, as now interpreted, has lost some of its authority. The U.S. Senate has lost any claim to be the world’s greatest deliberative body. The House has lost oversight of the executive branch of government. The American people have lost confidence in what constitutes a fair trial. But perhaps the biggest loser is common sense.

Glenn R. Plummer, Unity

Nancy Pelosi’s act shows her character

We have had presidential candidates for whom I did not vote and some whom I do not respect much, but how rude was it for one of our high leaders to deliberately tear up President Trump’s speech in multiple sections behind the back of the president of the United States and in view of the entire world?

If one of the presidents for whom I had little respect would enter the room, as a gentleman and as a good citizen I would stand and clap when “Hail To The Chief” was played. Even if I did not agree with that president, I would honor his position as the leader of our great nation.

The rudeness of tearing up the president’s speech and doing it behind his back tells much about the character of that politician even though she holds a powerful office in our federal government.

How very sad.

Dan Manka, Fairmont, W.Va.

The writer is a former Regent Square resident.

Who is Mitt Romney?

Mitt Romney. What is he? Is he a conservative? Is he a RINO? Is he a liberal in disguise? What I do know about a person like him is that he is a lowlife, and that is why he did not even get close to becoming president. His identity was that of a career politician and not acceptable to the American people.

John W. Newhouse, Shaler

Sen. Pat Toomey’s cowardice

So Sen. Pat Toomey has admitted that his vote for acquittal was largely due to fear of “societal upheaval” if the president was convicted and removed from office.

I hoped never to see the day when our leaders voted based on intimidation. That hope is now dashed, as the cowardice of politicians like Toomey allows our democracy to deteriorate into mob rule. The Bolsheviks in Russia and the Nazis in Germany were never majorities, but they managed to gain control, in no small part by intimidating legitimate governments. Cringing politicians like Toomey, more interested in their careers than their nations, ended up being facilitators.

If the senator is unwilling to stand up for the system that put him in office, he should seek other employment. He was not elected to abet the White House.

Howard Schmitt, Green Tree

Supreme Court’s peril

In response to Kathleen Bollinger’s letter “Supreme Court in peril”: I have to agree it is in peril. It is in peril because the Supreme Court lost its credibility due to the court packing done by Sen. Mitch McConnell starting in 2016.

After Justice Antonin Scalia died on Feb. 13, 2016, President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to fill the seat. But McConnell refused to allow Garland any formal consideration in the Senate, rejecting the Senate’s constitutional mandate, famously bragging that he was never prouder than when he told President Obama, “You will not fill this seat!”

McConnell has now rushed through many ideologues to lifetime judicial appointments in the lower courts, even ones that were rated as not qualified by the American Bar Association. All courts are to remain politically neutral. If that is indeed true, we will see many decisions that will disappoint conservatives and liberals alike. That is the way it is suppose to work.

If Ms. Bollinger is correct and all rulings result in conservative cause victories, SCOTUS has no credibility and we as a nation are also in peril.

Renalda Arndt, South Huntingdon

Supporting Trump

The constant attacks on President Trump are destroying our great nation. The career politicians have been trying to impeach Trump since the day after the 2016 election. If they can’t remove him from office, they want to disrupt the 2020 election because they cannot defeat him at the ballot box. In my opinion, their decades of corruption are about to be exposed, and they are terrified.

If you are a Trump hater, look in a mirror next time you want to disparage our president with hate and lies. Remember, we all live in glass houses. Trump supporters have been attacked in the streets. We have been called nasty names, and our intelligence has been questioned by liberal group-thinkers.

But we are strong. We see that Trump has brought our country back to what it was before the Democrats turned us into a nation of PC wimps. If you have any doubt of our strength, just attend a Trump rally.

I will support Trump now and for the next four years. Who will the Trump haters vote for? The socialists? The liberals promising free everything and open borders? Me, I will stick with Donald Trump, the one man in Washington protecting the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Jeanne Shields, North Huntingdon

Impeachment was a perversion of law, common sense

The lack of objective truth is the real reason for the insanity that we see each day. Removing objectivity and replacing it with emotions destroys common sense and one’s ability to reason. This is no clearer today than the impeachment trial.

The desperate attempts to get rid of a duly elected president on, I believe, nothing more than feelings is the surest sign that we are done as a civilization. Twenty-five years ago, they would never have dared to do this. It is a clear perversion of the law and common sense. When you can run through a bunch of charges that don’t meet the standard of the law as crimes without there being shame and or public scorn, then you have lost the education system that was there to teach basic civics.

These same people who drove this sham of an impeachment are promising a second round. It is not how it works. Childish and immature prattle by those who claim to know better needs to be dealt with by voting them out. No longer on the sidelines, the American people need to stand up and take their country back. The real fear in Washington is that you will do just that and take your government back.

Ray Schratz, Butler