Good for Al Green

Democratic Rep. Al Green vowed Tuesday to continue his push to impeach President Donald Trump, saying he would force a floor vote on the issue despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s opposition. In a news conference held in his office, Green (D-Texas) rebuked those who would put “political expediency ahead of moral imperative,” but did not disparage Pelosi.

  Politico

Well, kind of he did. Maybe not by name.

“This is not about the speaker. It wasn’t about the speaker before she became speaker, and it’s not about the speaker now,” Green said when asked if he would support removing Pelosi over her stance.

“It’s not about any one person — it’s really not even about the president as much as it is about what he’s doing. It’s about his behavior that is harmful to society,” he added.

Precisely.

Green, who forced a vote on articles of impeachment in the last Congress, said that lawmakers needed the courage to take a politically perilous vote in order to fulfill their constitutional duty.

[...]

He pushed back on the notion, raised by Pelosi and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who would oversee any impeachment proceedings, that broad bipartisan support was needed to pursue impeachment.

“If we wait on Republicans, who are not going to buy in, then there won’t be an impeachment,” he said, citing recent polling of Trump’s support among his party. “We should not wait on people who are not coming. That bipartisan ship has already gone to the bottom of the sea of sophistry.”

[...]

[H]e ripped “status quo opinion-makers and opinion-shapers” who would refuse the “loyal opposition” a chance to be heard.

“That’s your prerogative. I am not angry with you, I am not upset with you, I just tell the truth about you,” Green said. “I not only speak truth to power, I speak the truth about power.”

[...]

[H]olding up a framed vote sheet from the last floor vote on his articles of impeachment, which only got 66 votes — far short of the 218 needed to pass — Green predicted that this time around, he would get at least one more vote.

But, he mused, “when you’re standing on righteousness, one can be a majority.”

Not really, Al. But go for it. It's the righteous thing to do.