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Shell be joined by Cruz and Rubio, who are special targets of my disappointment because they were once special targets of Trumps ugliness. They know it firsthand and well.

They campaigned against him for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, when he didnt just criticize them but viciously belittled and even savaged them. He conspiracy-theorized a role for Cruzs father in John F. Kennedys assassination.

A pathological liar, Cruz called Trump.

But now that Trump is president and his base has become the most impassioned constituency in the party, Cruz is his biggest cheerleader and a ready mouthpiece for all of those lies. He has swapped thoughts of 2016 for thoughts of 2024, when theres another opportunity to reach for the White House and Trumps loyalists will come in handy. Hell have to muscle aside Javanka and Don Jr., but thats a pickle for another day. First step: acquittal!

Rubio has long fashioned himself a foreign-policy maven and took a hard line when it came to Russia. So you might think that the Trump presidency would be especially galling to him. You might also think that Trumps bullying of Ukraine which left the country more vulnerable to Russian aggression would be some sort of breaking point.

But hes a Republican member of Congress in 2020, which means hes a sycophantic shell of his former self. And having bitten his tongue about Trumps global misadventures, hell now abet more of the same by helping Trump stay in office.

There are so many other Republican senators to marvel at. Mitt Romney, what was the point of diving back into public life if youre going to prop up a president whose fraudulence you once gave a whole long speech about? Lamar Alexander, you venerated Howard Baker, a fellow Tennessean who once held your Senate seat and put principle above partisanship by standing up to President Nixon. Why not do the same and stand up to President Trump?

Susan Collins, I cant imagine the exhaustion of your role as political wild card, scrutinized to a fare-thee-well. But come on. If youre going to pride yourself on autonomy, you need to exercise it when it matters most.

Its not fun to be any of you right now, with McConnell above you and #MAGA hellions below you poised to make your life a misery if you stray. But no one forced you into public service. When you entered the Senate, you took an oath, and you took another one on Thursday. I have a third question, maybe just a rewording of the first and second: Doesnt that nag at you even a little?

I invite you to sign up for my free weekly email newsletter. You can follow me on Twitter (@FrankBruni).

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Senate Republicans Are Bathed in Shame - The New York Times

WASHINGTONThe biggest news about this corrupt administration* was not made in the Senate chamber on Tuesday. It was made out on the campaign trail by Senator Professor Warren. From CNBC:

Make no mistake. If we ever are going to repair the damage done by this administration*, it is going to have to include a thorough fumigation of every corner of the national executive. The first big mistake made by President Barack Obama was his determination to look forward, and not back. Too many of the criminals working for the last worst president in history skated. Too many Wall Street vandals got away clean. That cannot be allowed to happen again. The corruption of this administration* is unprecedented. It demands this kind of unprecedented response.

And we might as well look to the future, because the present is too dismal to contemplate. In the Senate on Tuesday, the Republican Party, represented by its majority caucus, formalized its fealty to this renegade administration*. It had several chances to demonstrate a modicum of independence, a smidgen of human courage, and it failed every time. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer proposed amendments to add further documents and witnesses to the deliberations. All of them failed by a straight, party-line 53-47 margin.

Alex WongGetty Images

In this, no Republican was different from any other Republican. Lisa Murkowski and Tom Cotton were the same. Thom Tillis and Ted Cruz were the same. Cory Gardner and Jim Inhofe were the same. Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse were the same as Mike Rounds and Mike Enzi. And they were all the same as Mitch McConnell. There were no moderate Republicans in the Senate on Tuesday. There were no Never Trumpers. There were only collaborators. There was no independence in the Senate on Tuesday, only complicity. And it was a deadening, sad thing to watch. The only real reaction was another cup of soggy oatmeal from the increasingly useless Susan Collins.

First of all, I dont believe a word of that. I think that three weeks from now, or whenever, shell find a way to weasel out and, even if she doesnt, I dont think there are three other Republicans who would follow her to a free buffet, let alone to a vote that would inconvenience the White House. Every single Republican in the chamber on Tuesday looked like theyd rather be anywhere else, up to and including hanging by their thumbs from the Key Bridge.

I like to look around and see how many of my colleagues are looking guilty, said Senator Amy Klobuchar. I saw a lot of them just sitting there, looking down. The Democratic senators seem content to plug along, letting the majority keep voting down what would seem to anyone whos ever watched a police procedural on TV to be reasonable requests. All this talk about how theyre asking the Senate to do the Houses work, thats just BS, said Senator Mazie Horono. Im listening very carefully, I take notes, and then I make my comments parenthetically, like, 'What a bunch of...

House manager Hakeem Jeffries later made a fine presentation of how many witnesses testified in previous impeachments. (Andrew Johnsons trial had 40 of them.) Thats the kind of thing that will survive on the record after all the knee-jerk constitutional negligence has been toted up. Barack Obama was wrong in 2008 and Joe Biden is wrong today. The fever never will break. The patient is going to have to die.

Link:
There Were No 'Moderate Republicans' in the Senate on Tuesday. Only Collaborators. - Esquire

Two years ago, Pennsylvanias supreme court dealt a blow to state Republicans when it said they had unconstitutionally rigged congressional elections in the state. Republicans fumed and threatened to impeach four of the justices, but the map was redrawn, and voters elected an even split of Democrats and Republicans to Congress in 2018. Now, Republicans are weaponizing a new tactic a move that seems designed to increase their power on the states highest court.

The Republican proposal overhauls the way that court justices are elected in a state that can swing both red and blue. The justices on the court, where Democrats hold a 5-2 majority, are currently appointed through statewide elections, but the new plan would make it so the justices are elected from districts throughout the state. The change would probably hurt Democratic candidates four of the current justices are from the Pittsburgh area and one is from Philadelphia, both urban areas that tend to skew blue.

If the proposal is successful, it could offer a roadmap for Republicans elsewhere to undermine state courts. Thats significant after last years supreme court decision that determined federal courts couldnt stop gerrymandering the partisan redistricting of state maps but that nothing stopped state courts from acting. State courts responded swiftly: a state court in North Carolina followed Pennsylvania and struck down electoral districts as unconstitutional gerrymanders there. And a slew of gerrymandering lawsuits are expected when districts are next redrawn in 2021.

With the Pennsylvania supreme court having struck down the general assemblys gerrymandering, the general assembly is now clearly trying to gerrymander the Pennsylvania supreme court itself, said Daniel Jacobson, an attorney who helped represent the plaintiffs in the gerrymandering case. It only goes to show the lengths that the general assembly leaders will go when they feel that their grip on power is threatened.

The Republican effort also comes as state lawmakers across the country have moved to weaken the independence of state courts, said Douglas Keith, who studies courts across the country at the Brennan Center for Justice. Some states do elect supreme court justices by districts and there can be good reasons for doing so, Keith said. But, unjustified efforts to change the composition of state courts can weaken public confidence in judges.

If the calls for geographic diversity are just a thin veil on an effort to make the court more political, or capture more seats for a political party or ideology, then theres a problem and a misunderstanding of what judges responsibility in our democracy are, Keith said.

The office of Representative Russ Diamond, the measures main sponsor in the House, did not return a request for comment. He has previously said the change would ensure there was more geographic and ideological diversity on the court.

The change would require a constitutional amendment that voters in Pennsylvania need to approve through a ballot referendum. Before it goes to the ballot, it needs to pass the state legislature in two consecutive sessions, so the earliest it could appear is 2021. The measure has already passed the Pennsylvania state house and is being considered in the Senate.

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Republicans push to weaken court that caught them rigging elections - The Guardian

Senators continue to show that they dont care about the impeachment trial by trying to get the schedule changed, so they have the weekend off.

CNNs Manu Raju tweeted:

The suspicion is that Republican Senators are the ones who are asking for the weekend off because they are the ones, who for the most part have been walking out and absent for long stretches of the impeachment trial.

Senators are being asked to do the jobs that they are being paid to do, and right now that job involves sitting down, being quiet, and fulfilling their constitutional duty to act as jurors in Trumps impeachment trial.

If this job is too hard, or if any of these complaints happen to be coming from the Senators who are running for the Democratic presidential nomination, which is doubtful because none of them have expressed regret over being at the trial, there is a simple solution.

Any Senator who doesnt want to uphold the oath they took at the beginning of the trial can quit the Senate, and do whatever they choose with their time.

The constant complaining from Senators who are acting as jurors is an insult to people who break their backs, sometimes working multiple jobs each week to make ends meet.

The Senate voted for these rules, and they should stick to them, so sorry spoiled millionaires, you cant have the weekend off.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook

Mr. Easley is the founder/managing editor and Senior White House and Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA.Jason has a Bachelors Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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Republicans Are Whining That They Want The Weekend Off From The Impeachment Trial - PoliticusUSA

Samantha Bee

We are now officially tits-deep in the Trump impeachment trial, said Full Frontals Samantha Bee on the second night of Trumps Senate trial. The only thing standing between us and justice is 53 Republican Senators and the reality that this entire process is doomed lets get hopeless!

At issue in the Senate trial on Wednesday was the admittance of new evidence; Republicans voted along party lines to reject the appearance of witnesses such as the former national security adviser John Bolton or Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine. Which is a shame, Bee said, because Parnas brought receipts to the table huge receipts, like CVS-level receipts that are 30ft long and come with a coupon for store-brand hemorrhoid cream.

Parnass evidence includes a letter from Giuliani to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which he says hes acting with the presidents knowledge and consent ironically, the presidents two least favorite things, joked Bee and texts exchanged with Ukraines then prosecutor general in which Parnas says hes prepared to [thrash] your opponent in exchange for firing the American ambassador to Ukraine.

Perhaps most damning is a note Parnas wrote on Ritz-Carlton stationery in which he explicitly stated his goal to get Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden. If that evidence were any more of a smoking gun, Don Jr would be holding it over a dead elephant, said Bee.

Republicans are setting themselves up for trouble by not hearing the evidence, Bee concluded. Look, guys, we know youre going to acquit Trump, but do you really think that will be the end? You think there wont be any more accomplices who snitch on Trump to protect themselves, or any more journalists who dig up proof of his guilt?

Even if Trump is re-elected, Bee concluded, this Ukraine story will haunt him until the blessed day when hes forcibly plunged out of the White House like a toilet clog.

Wednesday marked the first day of arguments in the Senate impeachment trial, and if Mitch McConnell has his way, this trial will go just like Donald Trumps dating career: quick and disappointing and no questions asked, said Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. Also, I would like $130,000 to forget I ever met him.

Representative Adam Schiff relayed the heart of the Houses impeachment case on the Senate floor, and it was gratifying to see someone take the constitutional responsibility of their office seriously, Colbert said. He laid out the case against the president clearly, passionately, cogently, and I believe courageously, because whether or not Trump is removed from office, history will not forgive those who look the other way at his abuses, or forget those who stepped into the breach at this moment of crisis.

Its thus no surprise, he continued, that the days No 1 trending topic on Twitter was Mr Peanut. The second was Gritty, the controversial Philadelphia Flyers mascot. Colbert reached a quick conclusion: Were doomed.

On party-line votes, Republicans rejected seeing records from the White House, evidence from the state department, documents from the Office of Management and Budget and defense department, and subpoenas for testimony by John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney. Which led Colbert to wonder: Why are you rejecting all information? Arent you the least bit curious about all the crazy shit Trump did? You dont even need to do anything about it, just vote to find out what it was!

Everybody wants to find out their bosss secrets. Take it from me you dont want to learn it from a Ronan Farrow article, Colbert said in reference to Farrows 2018 expose of alleged sexual harassment by the former CEO of CBS, Les Moonves.

And on the Daily Show, Trevor Noah paid particular attention to arguments made by Hakeem Jeffries, a Democratic congressman from New York, on Wednesday. We are here, sir, to follow the facts, apply the law, be guided by the constitution, and present the truth to the American people, Jeffries said, then responded to a question by Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow with lyrics from the Notorious BIGs song Juicy: That is why we are here, Mr Sekulow. And if you dont know, now you know.

The reference shows how far hip-hop has come, said Noah. Think about it in the 80s and 90s, it was considered gangster music, and now its being quoted in an impeachment trial.

Noah also analyzed the Republicans refusal to subpoena John Bolton for witness testimony, although he conceded that even if [Bolton] appears, theres a good chance that the senators wont hear what hes saying at all. Because based on yesterday, half of them are already checked out.

Several senators were spotted being, shall we say, unfocused at the trials second day: seven were seen with Apple watches, Senator Rand Paul did a crossword, and a sketch artist captured one senator from Idaho asleep in his chair. You know youve been sleeping for a long time when an artist has time to sketch your portrait, Noah said.

See original here:
Samantha Bee: 'The only thing between us and justice is 53 Republican senators' - The Guardian