San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Touching remembrance
Deep thanks to Mick LaSalle for his touching, thoughtful remembrance of the great actor Sydney Walker in Ask Mick LaSalle (Datebook, June 2). His beautifully rendered description brought back memories of the privilege it was to experience the power of Sydney Walker on stage at the American Conservatory Theater during his many years here. San Francisco was indeed fortunate to have attracted the talented New York actor who enhanced San Francisco’s cultural life and whose powerful stage presence brought the pleasure of fine acting to so many.
Veronica Charvat, Mill Valley
Continue investigations
Regarding “Pelosi calls for unity amid cries to impeach” (Page One, June 2): I can sympathize with those Democratic presidential candidates who say impeaching President Trump is necessary as a statement of constitutional responsibility, regardless of any forlorn hope for Trump’s removal from office by a Republican Senate.
However, I also agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that pursuing such a course prior to the 2020 election is likely to backfire and only provide the president with a perfect issue with which to energize his base.
The solution is to continue with the investigations but leave any actual impeachment vote to the lame-duck session. Then, regardless of the election’s outcome, Trump will go down in history as only the third president to have been impeached. Any other line of action is just a waste of time that would be best spent making the Democrats’ case for electoral victory.
Impeachment doomed
In “Demand justice at top” (Letters, June 2), the author posits an equivalency between the U.S. justice system and a presidential impeachment trial in Congress. I agree that we should be relentless in our pursuit of justice where crime is concerned but there’s an overarching component to presidential impeachment proceedings that’s missing in our courts (we hope): politics. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rightly reasons that, until the case against the president is compelling to those of all political stripes, pursuing justice through impeachment will simply be cathartic, quixotic and doomed to failure in the politically conservative Senate.
Pelosi must be cautious
Regarding “Pelosi keeps cool amid pressure to impeach” ( John Diaz, Insight, June 2): Since it’s quite clear that the GOP-controlled Senate will never vote to impeach Donald Trump, the prospect of having the Democraticcontrolled House of Representatives begin a formal and lengthy hearing to remove the 45th president from office will surely damage the party’s prospects for regaining the White House in 2020. Of course it’s outrageous that Trump has defied Congressional subpoenas and blocked administrative members from providing testimony.
However, even after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller stated that, “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” only 60% of polled Democrats said the president should be impeached and removed, while only 36% of independents were in favor according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey. These are not strong enough numbers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to move ahead with impeachment hearings. She is wise to keep cool and exercise caution despite a growing impeachment clamor within her party’s caucus.