Yes. The Dems are trying to tip toe through this like they do everything else. They are crippled by their own fear and ineptitude, even in the face of such obvious presidential misbehavior.
That may be part of it, but I think that only applies to the 6-8 Dems in red/swing districts that have yet to say they support an impeachment inquiry.
Even Nadler and Schiff, who both obviously strongly support impeachment and removal, voted in caucus this week to not set a vote on the House floor to get the entire House to vote on opening an inquiry.
It is strategic. We can disagree/agree with that strategy, but I think it is important people understand why they're choosing this strategy.
1. The Democrats want to rapidly get this done. They want to get the witness testimony locked in before people can coordinate, be threatened, bribed with a pardon, etc. They also want to get documents ASAP so they don't get "lost during an office move/cleaning "or some other similar excuse.
2. If the entire House votes to open an inquiry then the GOP is allowed to basically have equal ability to control and operate hearings, subpoena witnesses, etc. Dems are concerned that the GOP would simply obstruct, waste time, harass witnesses, call non-relevant witnesses, and so anything they can to stall out the inquiry, block its progression, and muddy the waters. This goes back to number 1. If the GOP can stall and obstruct, the Dems plans to rapidly collect and lock in evidence is fatally damaged. Dragging out the Mueller inquiry showed that it simply allows time for the GOP and Trump to distract, delay, and obsfucate. To this day, I'd say probably 80% of Americans or more aren't even vaguely familiar with the actual conclusions of the Mueller report. People lost interest, the waters were muddied, the wagons were given time to circle, and the GOP was able to establish a counter-narrative of investigating the investigators.
3. The Republicans also want the vote so they can spin the results. If all the Dems vote yes, then they'll say look how partisan and lock-step this inquiry is. If a handful of Dems abstain or vote to wait for more evidence, the spin becomes "not even the entire Dem Party believes in this" and then the GOP says look at all the radical Dems like the Squad who voted yes. Additionally, if all Dems do vote yes, that immediately gives the GOP an attack vector to go after the 6-8 Dem incumbents in red/swing districts, and could put the House majority at risk in 2020.
Finally, the Dems also know that few, if any, Republicans would currently vote yes. I'm sure they've had plenty of conversations with both retiring GOP House members and those running for re-election, and there probably are a couple dozen or more who are sick of Trump and would love to impeach and remove him. But, if they vote yes now, the GOP gets to slow things down and obstruct, and then berate the yes voting members the entire time and punish them politically and socially until they agree to vote no on the Articles of Impeachment themselves. And you better believe Trump will direct every ounce of his invective and that of his supporters towards those GOP members who "betray" him.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if 2-3 dozen GOP Reps (maybe even more) are secretly wishing (or even supporting) the Dems doing it this way because they're protected politically until the damning evidence and witnesses are locked in. Once that occurs, the vote to open an inquiry and the politics of it all no longer matter. The GOP then can't slow it down or obstruct witnesses and testimony. It becomes the simple question of whether or not the evidence is there to make a compelling case that Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors. Either they have the goods on Trump or they don't. If they do have the goods, and public support has continued to rise supporting impeachment (it has continued to do so thus far since the WB complaint was announced), that's when you would see Republicans defect and start being honest about Trump. That's when you start holding full votes of the House and make people decide how they want to be remembered in history. The delay on a floor vote is also an opportunity for the GOP members who want to get rid of Trump to wait and see if GOP voters also start to shift towards supporting impeachment. Then they will also have the political cover they need.
Agree with the strategy or not, but that's why they've avoided the floor vote. It isn't to hide things or do them in secret. The Democrats are taking advantage of the House rules that Republicans agreed to and used during things like the Benghazi investigation. They learned from the Mueller probe that you simply can't wait months or years to get witness testimony locked in or to collect evidence and documents. You have to do so immediately. You also cannot give the GOP the ability to use House procedural gimmicks and obstructionist tactics to delay, obsfucate, and block legitimate witness testimony and evidence, and allow them to establish a counter-narrative by calling partisan witnesses and opportunistic grifters to gum up the works.
The Dems learned from Benghazi and other GOP investigations. Just like the GOP learned from Harry Reid when it came to blocking judges, and learned from the Democrat's behavior during Kavanaugh on how to use other dirty tricks.
Just remember when a Democrat or Republican whines about the other side doing something "inconsistent with this body's history" and other mumbo-jumbo that what they're really complaining about is that the other side learned from their tactics and adopted them.
Congress is akin to a group of whiny children. They use the exact same logic, tactics, and reasoning as the children do.