Why Is Anti-Trumper Adam Schiff Suddenly Hedging His Bets on Impeachment? | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's note: This post appears here courtesy of the LifeZette, and written by David Kamioner.

    The GOP recently lost two governorships in two conservative states.

    It lost the Virginia lower House.

    And it has a president who is likely soon to be impeached in the House.

    The Dems smell blood on impeachment - and are boasting, whenever they can, about a lack of support for the president.

    But from the mood of both parties, the fundraising numbers of both, and the polling in some places and from some sources - the tables are turned.

    Members of the GOP are girding for battle with a hard smile and a knife between their teeth.

    The Dems are hemorrhaging campaign cash, are not happy with the polling underperformance of the impeachment inquiry in the Dem-led House, and are scared to death the entire rush toward impeachment could backfire on them by emboldening the GOP base if President Donald Trump is acquitted in the Senate.

    This is possibly why House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) hedged his bets on Sunday in an interview, claiming a full House impeachment vote may not happen.

    He also said he needs to talk to his constituents and members of his own party to see what they think.

    "I want to discuss this with my constituents and colleagues before I make a final judgment on this," he said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

    There was also a Dem boomlet over the weekend for a vote of censure, not impeachment, in the full House.

    But the Dems know full well their own voters, not to mention most others, would flay them alive if they put the country through all this drama just to censure the president and essentially come up empty-handed.

    The president's approval ratings after the recent impeachment hearings also did not take a hit, with the same, basically, "45 percent approve, 50 percent disapprove, 5 undecided" numbers staying consistent across polls, according to Rasmussen.

    And the GOP, as its base is baying for blood over the inquiry, has been reaching deep into its pockets. The completely debt-free Republican National Committee raised $27 million in September and another $25.3 million in October, on top of $61.4 million on hand.

    If you include the re-election effort, the Republicans - breaking new records every month - have raised almost $400 million.

    They also picked up 75,000 new volunteers in response to the RNC's anti-impeachment "Stop the Madness" public relations campaign.

    By comparison, the Dems are $7 million in debt and raised only $9 million in October.

    They have $8.7 million on hand.

    The GOP advantage there is huge.

    And it's fueling the party's hard-edged optimism going into 2020.

    The Dems, in regard to impeachment, may do well to heed a quote from Japanese Imperial Navy Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after Pearl Harbor: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

    While it is early in the presidential election game, one thing is clear.

    Regardless of the superficial look of the political terrain right now, neither President Trump nor the GOP is feeling low.

    Just the opposite.

    They are eager for battle.