Sentence First, Trial After (and Make it Snappy)

Republicans are now openly admitting that it doesn’t matter what crimes the House finds Trump committed; they will make the Senate trial as short as possible and find him not guilty.

GOP senators say that if the House passes articles of impeachment against President Trump they will quickly quash them in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has broad authority to set the parameters of a trial.

While McConnell is required to act on articles of impeachment, which require 67 votes — or a two-thirds majority — to convict the president, he and his Republican colleagues have the power to set the rules and ensure the briefest of trials. The Hill May 27 2019

McConnell, it seems, doesn’t even have to let the House present a case:

McConnell would have broad authority to determine how a Senate trial would play out. He could stifle the arguments of Democratic prosecutors from the House as long as he’s backed up by his fellow GOP senators.

Yes, the Chief Justice would preside, but any ruling he makes can be overruled by a majority of the Senate. Democrats would need to persuade 4 GOP senators to defy McConnell, Trump, and the slavering horde of Trumpites for a Roberts ruling to stand. That means if McConnell doesn't want to let a witness (Mueller or McGahn, for example) testify, he can block it.

In short, as long as Trump does what McConnell wants, McConnell will make sure he stays in office. And I have no doubt McConnell is actively engineering the theft of the 2020 election as well — after all, he’s running in that one.

Trump may be evil, but McConnell is pure evil.

I posted a diary a while back — I’m a Convert to Impeachment — in which I argued that Trump needs to be impeached in order to make clear there is a price to pay for abusing his office. Now I’m hesitating a bit. I still think an inquiry needs to be made, to gather the evidence. But I’m of two minds whether to take the next step and actually send articles of impeachment to the Senate, and it will depend on whether it’s likely that the country will get so upset over McConnell’s flagrant flouting of the rule of law that the voters throw him as well as Trump out of office.

And it won’t be enough to get rid of McConnell; the GOP as a whole has to be removed from power. McConnell has shown them the way to game the system, and whether he’s in office or not, they will follow his example. The whole party has got to be shut down.