Rank'n'File Democrats Rueing Anew Pelosi's Leadership

Democratic dithering over impeachment (see Nicholas Fandos' "Democratic Calls for Impeachment Inquiry Grow as Leaders Instead Vow to Toughen Tactics") is splitting its caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. The latest humiliation is former White House counsel Donald McGahn ignoring a subpoena to appear being the House Judiciary Committee.

Trump is on firm footing here. Congress is significantly more unpopular than the president. Trump can continue to defy the feckless Democratic leadership of the House and the result will be a widening split between Pelosi and the rank'n'file of her party because Pelosi will do everything in her power to slow-walk any confrontation with the White House.

Interestingly, Fandos reports that the Dems have yet to bring contempt charges against AG Barr to a vote of the full House:

Mr. McGahn may become a test case. He skipped the Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday after being instructed to do so by the White House, leaving an empty chair where Democrats had hoped he could serve as a star eyewitness. In ordering him not to appear, the president cited a Justice Department legal opinion that the Constitution gives senior presidential aides “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas compelling them to testify about their official work.

In addition to fighting those claims in court, Democrats indicated that they would swiftly move to hold Mr. McGahn in contempt, perhaps taking the case straight to the House floor rather than waiting for a committee vote. They are newly considering altering House rules to allow for so-called inherent contempt penalties, like fines, people familiar with internal discussions said.

The Judiciary Committee has already voted to recommend that the full House hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt for his defiance of another subpoena asking for Mr. Mueller’s full report and underlying evidence. Democratic leaders had been stalling on bringing the contempt citation to the floor of the full House, but have not indicated they will accelerate a vote when they return in June from the Memorial Day recess.

Ms. Pelosi is said to be newly open to pulling Mr. Trump’s policy priorities into the fray, too. Thus far, she had refused to touch some of Congress’s traditional leverage buttons, like government appropriations bills. They could force Mr. Trump to reassess his approach, but also run the risk of backfiring on Democrats.

Pelosi is trying to thread the needle. She needs to keep all popular agitation within the caucus to a minimum while maintaining voter motivation going into a presidential election year. The endgame is to keep the Democratic Party in the thrall of large donors. It's not that impeachment hearings will guarantee Trump's reelection; it's that impeachment will accelerate the leftward shift of the party, create new leaders, mobilize a hungry, activist base that will not be Obama-ized this turn of the wheel.

Trump knows how rotten the Democratic Party is at the top, and he's playing the moribund leadership for all its worth.