Oh my friends in the Grand Old Party, WTF has happened to you all. You’ve turned into the Party of Chickenshits.
Today we had an early and completely unnecessary test by the new Head Cockswaddle, Mr. Rand Paul, who also appeared on our blog just yesterday.
Having received the latest Articles of Impeachment yesterday, the Senate had to be sworn in as Jurors (even though the trial will only begin on the week of February 8th). The aforementioned Mr. Paul immediately raised his randy hand and made a motion that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office (a notion that just about every Constitutional law scholar disagrees with, since other office holders have been impeached after leaving office). The Democrats opted to table the motion — a legislative procedure which buries it until it is taken off of the table again — and only five Republicans voted with the Democrats. Not even McConnell, who has indicated that he might be willing to convict Trump.
Now, a procedural vote is not necessarily the same as a substantive vote, but it effectively means that the Democrats have to find an additional dozen Republicans with the spines to vote to convict.
Otherwise Trump will have been exonerated twice for clearly impeachable offenses.
What are the Republicans so worried about?
- Trump is out of office.
- Trump can no longer hold rallies.
- Trump no longer has Twitter.
- If they convict and prevent him from running again, he will lose influence.
- A cult of personality usually loses influence once the leader is dethroned.
If the Republicans do acquit Trump a second time, then the Democrats will have extra incentive to come after him and convict him in a court of law, a venue where evidence actually matters.
Still, it is hard to fathom that the once Grand Old Party, the so-called “Party of Lincoln,” really has just become a Party of Chickenshits.
