digby: The delicate Victorian spinsters of the GOP Senate are "offended"

The delicate Victorian spinsters of the GOP Senate are “offended”
Published by digby on January 24, 2020


They’re about to faint dead away at the rudeness of the House Managers.

When you watch a trial, whether you’re on a jury yourself or on the couch in front of the TV, the prosecution’s presentation always seems airtight — until you see the defense. So I don’t want to say at this stage that the House managers in Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial have made their case. But seriously, it’s hard to see how the president’s team can plausibly explain away this behavior. Their only choice will be to admit that all the evidence is true and tell the American people that it was perfect.

Republican senators are all doing their part, acting as if the House managers are a bunch of primitive barbarians rampaging through their hallowed halls, gibbering incomprehensibly and rudely insulting them and their president with the shocking suggestion that he might have done something wrong.

You may recall that on the first night of the trial, at the end of an 11-hour day, Chief Justice John Roberts admonished both sides to be careful of their rhetoric because they were speaking in front of the world’s greatest deliberative body and they’ve earned the House’s respect. As it turns out, he did that because Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, had sent him a note asking him to scold Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, one of the House managers, for saying that senators would be covering up for the president’s misdeeds if they refused to call John Bolton to testify.

On Wednesday, other pearl-clutching senators also complained about Nadler’s comments. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the media she was “very offended” and Josh Hawley of Missouri chimed in, saying that Democrats “managed to alienate senators, attack their own jury” — as if any Republicans in the chamber had seriously been considering voting to call Bolton (or any other witnesses) until Nadler hurt their feelings.

Sure enough, the media dutifully asked every Democrat on Thursday if they would distance themselves from Nadler’s comments, giving the impression to the public that this alleged insult was truly over the top. So far, at least, Democrats have resisted the temptation to do that.

Republicans will obviously be using this tactic going forward, even though anyone can see that the House managers are extremely well-prepared and are making their arguments calmly and professionally. At the end of Thursday’s session, lead manager Adam Schiff gave a powerful closing argument in which he explained why the stakes are so high. It was not histrionic or insolent, but it was a sharp condemnation of the president that the House majority concluded must be removed from office for abusing his power.

more...

https://digbysblog.net/2020/01/the-delicate-victorian-spinsters-of-the-gop-senate-are-offended/?fbclid=IwAR30N7YP8nagSxdwwjvwpW2j_gWCs5cyHEErUWjTArrQVJ5mS-tvMiBTExs