I was thinking about this. If they’re principled (LOLOLOL) this is the logical (hahah I crack myself up…sorry) course of action, right? They should recuse themselves / abstain.
Of course they’ll never do it because that reduces the denominator and ensures conviction of their Dear Leader.
Top-rated WaPo reader comment:
“Republicans don’t seem to realize that it is not only Trump who is on trial, but the Republican party as well. When they acquit their cult-leader, they convict themselves.”
exactly. It’s no fun for them if they don’t get to mess with our minds along the way.
It would not be overly cynical to believe McConnell had his staff promote this idea only to give cover to his eventually telling GOP senators more privately to vote to acquit. “Hey, we considered it, and…”
The louder he talked of his honor , the faster we counted our spoons . RWE
Emerson would find an entire new vein to mine with McConnell’s ‘conscience’ charade.
Who here actually thinks that if McConnell’s vote would be a deciding factor in conviction, that he would actually cast it that way?
No
Castor is going to pivot today… just watch!
Exactly, my first and second thoughts Bull Pucky, then BULL SHIT…
McConnell revolves like a weather vane these days. He’s circling the drain, just like the rest of his craven party, smack up against the reality that there is no defense – not to mention Trump’s got a legal team that sucks and can never blow enough smoke to provide cover.
This is a lousy remake of a movie we’ve seen hundreds of times.
Hang my hat on McConnell doing the right thing?
Not today.
I think it’s within the range of possibility, but it’s not about principles.
As I read it, Moscow Mitch is saying that if Donnie’s defense puts on such a bad show, and can’t offer the senators even a fig leaf to hide behind, everyone’s free to convict. It’s extortion, something Donnie’s intimately familiar with: if Drumpf can only offer embarrassment to the national party for exonerating him (again,) the national party need not be complicit in its humiliation.
An improbably Lucy to Bloomberg’s Charlie Brown.
I would not assume that their vote to proceed means they will actually vote to convict. Certainly not Collins.
Agree 100%.
The only thing you can count on with Republicans is they will always work to do the wrong thing for America.
The question then becomes just who are the final few who don’t have the balls. You get to 16 REGUGs saying convict and you are next are your balls big enough to say it or are they raisins. For damn sure your name will be in the history books either way.
Why is the story “shitty lawyers!” and not “Hey, the jury has already declared innocence before the trial even started!”? Seems like the latter is waaaaaaaaaay more unpatriotic than the former…
I tend to agree with you too, but the defense was so bad that I liken it to the clothesless Emporer strutting into the chamber and demanding that they each walk up and kiss his bare ass in front of the world. He’s got 10 or 11 that jumped right in there and smooched away, but the others… may have been pushed too far 
Mass arrests Dem. will change everything.