192 Questons

The Senate begins questions in the impeachment trial on Wednesday and Thursday. These 16 hours of questions are expected to be answered in 5 minutes or less as per Chief Justice Roberts‘ instructions. By my calculations, this would allow possibly 192 questions toggled back and forth between the political parties. And, since there are 100 senators, this would allow at least one question per senator. This is a lot of political pontification ... but, I suspect, it can not and will not all be expended.

At most, I have predicted, only one day of queries, no witnesses (because the Dems won’t  allow reciprocity) and this whole sordid affair to be concluded by Friday.

Not with a bang but with a whimper ...

Bolton

In the current impeachment kerfuffle about witnesses, were I a senator, I might be tempted to call the Democrats’ bluff and vote for witnesses’ testimony ... for four reasons:

- The major damage from Bolton’s allegations has already been done to Trump. It is doubtful that a whole lot more could bee gleaned from Bolton’s actual testmony ... and it is even possible that the expected impact might be diminished by Bolton’s careful phrasings and sour-puss demeanor.

- The Republicans would clearly get at least one reciprocal witnesses ... maybe more. The miasma surrounding the Bidens likely would overwhelm any new allegations by Bolton or others.

- A witness calling tit-for-tat would extend this Senate trial for weeks, maybe months ... severely damaging Senators Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar ... the Dem frontrunners ... because of their curtailed campaigning. This combined with the likely damage to Biden would cripple the top four Dem presidential candidates. Only Buttigieg and Bloomberg would escape.

- Such a revelation and testimony from Bolton might even cut into his book sales ... a just reward for his disloyalty and money grubbing.

House Managers

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I am increasingly convinced that the Democrats’ imperial House managers for Trump’s Senate impeachment trial are exhibiting inflamed exhortations against President Trump in a rather repetitious and disingenuous way. Add soporific, staged and self-serving. Maybe also monotonous, misdirecting, melodramatic, mean, mendacious and malevolent. Bodacious, blatant and bilious. Droning, diabolical and dubious. Unconstitutional, unruly and unctuous. Treacherous and tedious. Rapacious and reptilian.

First Impressions

You never have a second chance to make a first impression. — Old Adage

The opening round of the impeachment trial goes to the Democrats. They may be liars ... but they are cleaver liars. On the first day they offered a series of amendments to McConnell’s procedural schedule calling for witnesses and documents. And then used their time in support of these amendments to make their opening arguments to the entire case ... during the time when the most Americans would be watching and when the president’s lawyers were not prepared to jump into this fray with their strongest arguments ... nor could they refute the opposition’s half-truths.

So, the Dems, even though they lost the votes on all these amendments, scored a minor victory which, depending on how the rest of the trial goes, may mean that witnesses and documents may have to be allowed in the end. And then, if the Dems can get their witnesses and deny the Republicans theirs, this might damage the president and the Senate Republicans enough to cause some setbacks this coming November. Unlikely, but possible.

Is this the Dem’s hidden agenda for this disruptive political theater?

Quotable Quote

”We are going to give Donald Trump a fairer trial than he deserves.” — Rep. Eric Swalwell (former California Democrat candidate for president)