They're whining would drown out all the noise in the universe if things were reversed.

Grab all you can, anytime you can — even when betraying the country.

and let the audience laugh at the hypocrisy and gal.

Has any Senator done this yet?

front runner.

And my god, he is one ugly motherfucker. He really is. Is that why all these republicans are so bitter and hateful? Is it because they are so repulsive in every way - physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally - that they can't find anyone who really wants to be with them? They either have to pay for it or force themselves on someone. Or find someone as odious and greedy as they are. They are all so unloved and unloving. Their souls are so black and fetid.

There is not one redeeming quality about the republican party. Not one. They are not conservative. They haven't been for over half a century. They are a party of (mostly) white men who were fine with representative government as long as they were the majority, or as long as they could rig the system so they rule. Once the uppity women, minorities, & the LGBT community demanded equality & equity in the system, they showed us what they really are: misogynists & racists.

What is wrong with these people that they can’t see the man is so corrupt, law breaking and really doesn’t represnt them but corporate interests where he make profits with backdoor deals.

Is there something in the water in Kentucky to make the people so stupid?

That he gets from Russian Oligarchs and that he gets from tax funds mostly supplied by Blue States and uses propaganda to convince them it's manna from heaven that only he could provide.

of the Senate judges, too? Or jurors.

Re the larger process, a lot of Senate trial details are up to Congress, and it's not letting the public know how the Senate will conduct that trial. There's no public information on the procedure for who presents the House's case. Or even IF the House's case is presented at all.

If the Senate only has the House Articles of Impeachment read, the Senate can be as individually political as it wants.

But if evidence is laid out as support for the Articles, the public can see whether the vote is motivated by politics or oath.

If impeachment is political, is this trial NOT political?
Is the trial the constitutional equivalent of a real federal court room?
Does the Senate trial turn the Senate into the Third Branch?

Painter doesn't clarify that, and other sources I read don't, either.

Senators in this case do seem more like jurors.

Misconduct like this should get a juror struck, but I know of no mechanism to do this here — other than perhaps presenting evidence to Roberts at the start of the trial. He is a fair-minded man, but I doubt he would go for it. It’s worth a shot, though. McConnell at least deserves to be struck.

I’ll have to defer to experts on the questions you raised. My uneducated guesses are no, yes and yes.

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what the Senate does, through all kinds of amplified "speculation" -- can endanger this country if the larger population doesn't find out and hold McConnell's feet to the fire.

I hate to say it, but I think you're mistaken to believe there are experts on this.

Add to the fact that this process is so rare, the other darkness of threats of civil war shootouts, and we'll face ongoing attempts to keep us exhausted by bullshit, and pacified under unjust manipulations and fearmongering against those who resist it by legitimate, fact-based means.

Cool heads aren't always honest heads.

by which I mean direct attacks on voting rolls or tabulators. We know they can access the rolls, but experts say there’s “no evidence of altered data or changed votes” — which is a wide-open statement. It could mean they didn’t do it, or they did and didn’t leave evidence. Bad actors will surely be better at it by 2020, and we’ve done next to nothing to prevent another attack. I just heard Iran is gearing up for a psyops campaign similar to Russia’s. It feels like it’s open season with only Gen. Nakasone protecting us — no massive effort from the top as it needs to be.

matter what government it protects.

I hope I'm wrong about what the military thinks and who can command it.

managers for repeatedly referring to the Senators as jurors, and protested to Rehnquist, who ruled in Harkin’s favor noting that “The Senate is not simply the jury, it is also the court”

That being said, Painter’s accusation is not a serious one.

to their "not guilty" vote.

End of story. So Painter's charge of corruption will be moot.

The next series of impeachments by the House will meet with the same obstructions.

The only way forward for the House is to get 45's henchmen -- who 45 will pardon -- through the legal treadmill of criminal trials under RICO or other indictments, state or federal level.

The Law is losing to the crooks.

... have already sold their votes in perpetuity to Vlad the Impaler.

Every agreement to suppress evidence, push judges like kav, and just about every sleazy thing these guys did in conjunction with the wh will come out if he is convicted.

He has their balls in his desk. he wil f$%^ them if he goes down. He is already doing that to barr, pence, pompeo, etc. he promised pardons he surely wont give out if he gets convicted. It's an all him, all the way, strategy.

They should have known this going in. But trump has them. They aren't getting out of this intact.

ReThuglicans behind bars!

I believe Chief Justice John Roberts will be the presiding judge if the impeachment goes to trial.

But having said that, it's just as criminal for a juror to reach out to the defendant's supporters asking for money for a favorable vote.

But we all know the Repubs for the most part are criminally minded, not ethically minded.

Each judge gets a vote.

The Nixon era Dems had the tapes. We have the transcripts. But as the investigation goes forward, I'd love to see unearthed more real evidence. I've heard of maybe a second whistleblower to back up the first.

It would be wonderful to watch, as evidence mounts, like dominoes, one R senator, then another, then another indicate they will vote yes. Until, like being painted into a corner, he either has to go down in history as casting one of the minority of votes that excused Trumps behaviour, or has to betray the Trump cultists in his district by reversing his promise.

Painter is usually a smart guy, but this analysis seems wholly unserious.

Rec

Just sayin'

other prerequisites. I think the best way to handle Mitch and the other Republicans who will vote to acquit Trump will be to defeat their reelection bids.

They did the very same thing, you'll recall, ahead of the Clinton impeachment - but of course in reverse.

They fundraised the hell out of that show trial of theirs.

Flat out bribery.

Corrupt Barr to open an investigation on his clan? No way.

I've never seen anything so disgusting...

Federalists #51 talked about the separation of powers...Madison assumed "the ego of men" would prevent any single institution becoming beholding to the others..

Of course he and the other Federalists never saw the rise of political parties...they never anticipated that one branch would belong to one political party and that the others would follow.

McConnell's biggest sin, in my opinion, is that he has given up the independence of the Senate and by doing so has eliminated one of the few safeguards we have against an oligarchy or authoritarian Presidency.

We are in grave danger.