WAPO: The Judiciary Committee votes to impeach, and Trump is on his way to his one line in history

By Jennifer Rubin

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For the Republican Party, this episode is, we can only hope, the final nail in a party that has become a mouthpiece for foreign propaganda and an anti-democratic enabler of a corrupt president. We arrived at this point because Republicans rejected character as a qualification for president; Republicans joined in Trump’s assault on facts; Republicans attacked and smeared the intelligence community; Republicans refused to hold Trump accountable for obstruction of Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation in Russian interference in the 2016 election; and Republicans refused to find fault and perhaps agree on a lesser penalty than impeachment. Without a willing and deceitful right-wing media and “useful idiots” in the House Republican caucus, we would not now be facing the ordeal of impeachment.

Impeachment is not, as some commentators have suggested, designed to “resolve” the matter or provide national catharsis. It is meant to establish, if only for history, that there is a line no president shall cross. It is a flashing red light to future presidents: Do not go there.

It is fitting I suppose that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is already colluding with the White House to conduct a sham Senate trial in which witnesses will be prevented from testifying. McConnell hammers the last nail in the coffin of the Senate’s reputation when, without hesitation nor any concern for the institution and in the role of the trial juror’s foreman, he plots with the defendant to promulgate rules that ensure the least amount of fuss in the march to their predetermined outcome. One could argue that this is no trial at all and that a subsequent Senate, if Trump is — God forbid — reelected, would be entitled to declare a mistrial and proceed with a full, fair and complete trial on the merits.

Anyone not intoxicated by the brew of Fox News-Breitbart-Federalist-Sinclair-talk radio conspiracy theories, out-and-out lies and hysteria would, after only a few minutes of viewing the past two days of House Judiciary Committee proceedings, conclude that one party is utterly unfit to hold office and is collectively off its rocker. The other, however imperfectly, is attempting to lay down a marker, to conduct constitutional hygiene and to leave bread crumbs for history that lead to the conclusion: This was the most corrupt president in history who violated his oath and betrayed his country.

The rest:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/12/13/judiciary-committee-votes-impeach-trump-is-his-way-his-one-line-history/