As the Senate impeachment trial hurdles to a close, the President’s lawyers and House impeachment managers wrapped up around 16 hours of arguments during the question and answer sessions — some serious, and some downright laughable.
New rule:
If Trump gets away with this, it’s not an “acquittal.”
It’s a ratification.
Look for Doug Collins to try to introduce pre-impeachment preparations against Biden now.
And, just to pick a nit, this “trial” hurtles to a conclusion, not hurdles.
the sacred right of every American to vote and to choose their president
We gerrymander to ensure everyone’s God-given right to have a Republican bureaucrat tell them how to live their lives.
Ms Riga forgot to include the responses any Democrats might have given to the crazy statements. Crazy flies, sane reponses, not so much.
However, the insanity/inanity may continue longer than predicted, like until after SOTU
An excerpt from the trial rules that McConnell and the Republican majority passed:
“Motions adopted by the Upper House may deviate from the Constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Legislature. The rights of the President remain unaffected.”
Oh wait – my bad – that’s from the “Enabling Act of 1933”.
Blue
“like until after SOTU”
If we are still talking about it after the SOTU,McConnell lost.One Senator said its no way he would allow it to go that long.We will see.
The most disingenuous part of the “let the voters decide” or “the House is trying to deny the voters their duly elected President!” type arguments is that such arguments themselves conveniently ignore the 2018 midterm elections where voters clearly decided they wanted Congress to take a more active role in holding the President accountable.
Well, we have been treated to the spectacle of Republican senators leaping over facts, logic and common sense in their rush to get to the end of this. That certainly sounds like the 400 m hurdles to me 
With both the SOTU next Tuesday and the Hannity interview this Sunday, I’ve been thinking that the delay might just be in Trump’s interest. Does our Fair-haired POTUS want the opportunity to “testify” in the court of public opinion?
I’m now wondering if the American Bar Association has trouble reading the many complaints filed against Cockholster’s lawyers; without researching it, I know more than a few complaints* have been filed against them with zero action taken.
My thinking is that, with regards to his impeachment defense clown car, perhaps the ABA might benefit from a highlight reel of all the provably false statements (read: lies) they’ve made in front of the Senate and the world might assist that august body in determining the basis for their disbarment.
*The most recent one I remember came from George Conway himself, against Bill disBarr IIRC.
I’ve never watch a PP SOTU and this will be one more because the crazy grievance filled rants will suck all the oxygen out of the chamber. Plus the sight of a man with spittle dribbling down his chin and turning red would be too much
I think Trump is behind this push to delay the Senate impeachment vote until Wednesday (coincidentally the day after the SOTU).
Perhaps the Orange Stain plans some grand flourish for his Super Bowl remarks and/or the State of the Union on Tuesday.
All while running those hurdles with their fingers in their ears, and screaming “la,la,la, I can’t hear you!” They may be slow getting over those hurdles, but their breathe control is amazing!
How are they going to keep a motor mouth liar from lying on national TV, once he’s seen the fix is in?
Drats they’ve caught on to the Democrats’ plan to overturn the 2016 election and…make Mike Pence president?
The starting point is that, the criminality, stupidity, and just plain crazy notwithstanding, the Rs want Trump in that office and they want him re-elected. Why? (1) Supreme Court picks and the rest of the Federal judiciary. Any R Senator from the South and a lot others as well have that as a high priority, since they can go after all the civil rights cases of the last 70 years. (2) Tax cuts. This, even more than SCOTUS, has been the one unifier in the Republican party since the 1970s. (3) Last but not least, paying off the religious fundamentalists and bigots who comprise their base; if they stay home (they are getting older) it is all lost. McConnell and some of his caucus get the demographics, and their goal is to return to the pre-Civil War framework for keeping them out of the system.
McConnell can’t do anything about Romney (who hates him) or Murkowski (who actually represents her state and has clashed repeatedly about issues that the rest of us tend not to pay attention to). And Susan Collins got the one remaining pass because if she didn’t she would not be getting re-elected. In the meantime, the pork is being served up in double time to anyone else wavering. (Does McConnell understand that he’s an endangered incumbent himself?)
It seems to me that another Bonkers Argument is the one they keep repeating that the House subpoenas and other proceedings were illegitimate because they didn’t first do this or that.
The Constitution clearly says that the House has the “SOLE” power to impeach. It is not subject to agreement by the Courts, the President, or anybody else.
Even if the senators feel that Article 1 of Impeachment does not meet the level to convict, there can be no doubt whatsoever that the President obstructed the House in its legitimate Impeachment inquiry, no matter how they did it.
I wish Bolton and the NYT would publish what his testimony would have been on Monday, right before the SOTU. Then some of the Dems can periodically shout out “you lie” during the speech. Make the Repugnants sit in the chamber and let everyone glare at them until they feel the consequences of their traitorous actions.
And all that without a Reichtag Fire
Brilliant