State Sen. Tom Tiffany (R-Minocqua) is in a tough primary fight against Jason Church for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 7th District Special Election. We’re big admirers of Tiffany and his strong conservative record in the legislature. Unfortunately, in the contest to be more Trumpy than his Republican primary opponent, Jason Church, Tiffany has gone a bit too far.
Tiffany introduced a resolution in the state legislature on Tuesday calling for opposing the House of Representatives’ articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
“Speaker Pelosi’s House of Representatives has wasted several months focusing on a baseless impeachment of President Trump,” said Tiffany in a release announcing the resolution.
“It’s time for Wisconsin to stand up and say we as a state want Congress to focus on issues that matter, like defending our borders to combat drug and human trafficking, maintaining American military superiority, ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and protecting our Constitutional rights,” Tiffany adds. “A majority of Americans oppose impeachment and think enough time has been wasted. It’s time for the impeachment distraction against President Trump to end.”
We’re not going to weigh in on whether the president should have been impeached or if the U.S. Senate should remove Trump from office. We’ll leave the federal issue for another day.
But it’s worth noting that impeachment is a federal issue, not a state issue. By running for a federal office, Tiffany should feel free to discuss impeachment all he wants on the campaign trail. However, the state legislature is for debating state issues, not federal issues.
Conservatives don’t like it when liberals try to use local governments to score political points. More than a few conservatives objected, correctly, when local municipalities passed advisory referendums on redistricting and reforming the state’s marijuana laws. Why would conservatives want to turn around and try the same tactics using the state legislature?
We have to note the irony of Tiffany complaining about the “wasted time” of the impeachment process. Tiffany’s resolution only invites the legislature to waste time re-fighting the entire impeachment battle.
And will there be witnesses called? John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, is supposedly ready to testify if the U.S. Senate subpoenas him. Will the Wisconsin Senate subpoena him instead? How about Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani?
Maybe House Speaker Nancy Pelosi can spare a House Impeachment Manager or two to come to Madison. With any luck, they’ll bring souvenir pens.
Tiffany calls the impeachment process “a distraction.” Let’s not allow impeachment to be a distraction for the state legislature. Keep it to the campaign trail.
Note: RightWisconsin will be making a rare endorsement in this special election on Monday. The Republican primary in the 7th Congressional district is February 18, the same day as the Spring Primary. The Special Election, thanks to Governor Tony Evers’ manipulation of the election calendar for partisan advantage, will be held May 12.
