Until Ukraine hit that was definitely the plan because a vote would put our Senators on the defensive. Now the pressure's the other direction.
Dodging a vote is an interesting tactical concern, but I'm more concerned with winning news cycles during the election.
If you look at the polls during the '16 election, it's basically - whoever was in the news last was losing. Trump would do something stupid and fall, then there would be another nothingburger of emails. The '16 election was fundamentally scandal tennis. And thanks to Comey, Clinton was in the news last, and it has a good deal to do with the fact that she lost.
the email hoax was so successful because it could just do this drip drip drip of ostensibly damaging revelations, and even if there wasn't anything there, getting "emails" on chyrons all across America's airports did a lot. I suspect that it was an intentional streamer of the Trump campaign, or the Russians planning the leaks. It's a media strategy that the democrats should adopt.
the goal is a drip feed of damaging information right up until Election Day. Even if the populace isn't closely following the story, or even at all. If someone hears something briefly on the radio on October 11th and then again at their doctors' office on the 15th, and again in an ad on the 23rd, and again from their friends on the 30th... even if they're not following closely, even if they couldn't give you the details, that will stick with them.
It's hard to create such a story out of thin air without it doing something grossly Illegal and irresponsible. But the dems have had one dropped into their lap. They can't waste it.
