Not to mention how Trump is going to react. He is not done as far as he is concerned, and those who support him are going to be thrown under the bus by his actions.
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I wonder whether he will ramp up to more explicit calls for violence.
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I understand that he is exceedingly rich… through marriage.
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This is an excellent idea. I have not heard a single Democrat promote it. Have you?
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Depends in part on what Butch Bowers (and Lindsey Graham) will tolerate from him.
Also on whether he is distracted by legal process.
But you’re right: He is almost unmanageable.
I’ll admit, I’m stuck on the “republicans tell” part.
He knows where the cho line is.
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Hey. Kevin:
Which Democrats were these?
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It is interesting (at least to me) that there is no provision to disqualify Senators who may be co-conspirators in the incitement of insurrection from sitting in judgment on the principal. At the very least, Hawley and Cruz should be disqualified as jurors; more generally, anyone who voted to overturn the results of the election should be so disqualified.
That there is no such provision is simply further confirmation that impeachment is meant to be a political process, not a judicial one. As Hamilton noted in Federalist Papers no. 65, the decision is more likely to be based on political allegiance than on the evidence.
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Maybe that’s a sidebar reason for the delay in starting the trial.
A lot of what’s going down here has never happened before. The rules should be put in place now with this scenario to ensure there’s never again any debate about ‘what should happen’.
We haven’t seen the censures. We haven’t seen the loss of committee assignments. This is true in both the House and the Senate. I’m not sure why there is such a delay, other than doing so now would demonstrate too much partisanship until the trial is over. That’s the only justification I can see.
Well, in theory anyone who aided insurrection is barred from serving in congress. But it’s not clear how that finding would be made in this case. Maybe by a majority vote 
Shorter Kevin McCarthy: “I am one stupid motherfucker.”
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The ones in his tiny mind?
Here’s how the senate as of this a.m. is lining up.
| party | Support | Undecided | No | No response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 37 | 26 | 27 | 10 |
| Republicans | 0 | 16 | 27 | 7 |
| Independents | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Democrats | 36 | 9 | 0 | 3 |
So I am not sure where the 17 ‘converts’ are going to come from.
Yeah. The last thing Mitch needs is Trump rabble rousing the base over the next 2-4 years. Primarying institutional Republicans and playing kingmaker. An even worse Mitch nightmare is an independent run by the Dump or forming the Trump Coalition Party. Much better Mitch strategy is convicting Trump in the impeachment trial, banning him from further office, and letting the lawsuits and criminal liability cases play out. Mitch needs to pay the price now and rearview the fucker.
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Another fine example of the prowess of the Biden messaging team that we have been talking about.
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Mitch is also, I think, something of a coward. And you know that if he gets republicans in line behind impeachment, he’s going to be at risk of assassination.
There are current threats to the senators prior to the impeachment trial, even travelling to and from DC. How will they vote if some of their own are attacked? Trump is a long term threat to anyone who crosses him. Offload him now. He is dangerous. Cowering in fear is no answer.
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You’re looking for republicans to act like Winston Churchill (the good parts) after years of doing wimpy imitations of the bastard offspring of Neville Chamberlain and Oswald Mosley. It’s possible but unlikely.
I think they’re calculating that if they convict trump and bar him from office, they make the trumpists base angry and sad enough to lose significant ground in 2022. And thence in 2024. Whereas if they keep trying to ride the tiger they have a chance to continue damaging the country badly enough that they make gains in 2022 and then are positioned to run authoritarian in 2024 to stop the unrest that they’ve created. (And they’re also calculating that either criminal prosecution or dementia will take trump out of the picture by then.)
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