From the shooting someone on 5th Avenue files
by digby
GOP senators say that if the House passes articles of impeachment against President Trump they will quickly quash them in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has broad authority to set the parameters of a trial.
While McConnell is required to act on articles of impeachment, which require 67 votes — or a two-thirds majority — to convict the president, he and his Republican colleagues have the power to set the rules and ensure the briefest of trials.
“I think it would be disposed of very quickly,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
“If it’s based on the Mueller report, or anything like that, it would be quickly disposed of,” he added.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to McConnell’s leadership team, said “nothing” would come of impeachment articles passed by the House.
Given the Senate GOP firewall, Cornyn, who’s also a member of the Judiciary Committee, said he doubts that Democrats will commence the impeachment process.
“It would be defeated. That’s why all they want to do is talk about it,” he said. “They know what the outcome would be.”
Graham is the only one who qualified that by referring to the Mueller investigation. And he didn't mean it. What they are all saying is that nothing discovered in an impeachment inquiry will result in a conviction no matter what it is. They are making that quite clear.
There was a time when Senators would say something like, "nothing I've heard so far adds up to an impeachable offense as far as I'm concerned, but of course, I will look at all the evidence before I render a judgment" (because I at least pay lip service to our constitution and legal system to show I'm not a total hack.) They don't bother with such niceties anymore --- the old "hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue" thing is dead and buried. It's pure partisan power playing now accompanied by WWE style trash talk.
That's why worrying about whether or not Trump is convicted in the Senate is so absurd. Republicans will not even attempt to put on some kind of a real trial. People know what a fair process looks like and they will see that the fix was in. Sure, hardcore Republicans will cheer their team. But that's only about 40% of the public at best. For the rest of the country, they will be exposed for what they are. Democrats should not be afraid of that.
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