When the impeachment trial ends, the Senate's reputation will be hopelessly in tatters

[Zorro]

What will be left of the impeachment power after the Senate’s acquittal of President Trump? Not much. What will be left of the Senate’s reputation as the world’s greatest deliberative body? Same answer.

Same scary answer.

The two are interconnected, of course, but my point is not that the Senate was obligated to convict the president. Conviction and removal from office are warranted, but that was never a realistic possibility. And a reasonable senator with an eye on the electoral calendar could have concluded that it would be better for the country to let voters decide.

What a reasonable senator could not do was what happened here: wholesale shirking of the Senate’s constitutional responsibility to assess — which includes a responsibility to obtain — all the evidence of potential wrongdoing. Senators offered up an unconvincing grab bag of excuses for this dereliction of duty:

That the House didn’t do its homework and it wasn’t the Senate’s job to make up for that — as if the Senate had not been entrusted with the “sole power to try” impeachments. That it would take too long and distract the Senate from its other pressing work — as if there were anything more important, and as if the Senate were actually doing anything beyond ramming through judicial nominees.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-president-is-unchecked-and-our-system-is-unbalanced/2020/01/31/575ecacc-4473-11ea-aa6a-083d01b3ed18_story.html

[duforsure]

1. I think it'll be

Republicans in the Senate will be the focus of what happened there, and how they corrupted with help from Putin and trump our elections , and our government. The Democrats who were in our government didn't stop it, or work at exposing them enough, and partly to blame for trump. Unless they help the poor and working people, instead of the wealthy we'll likely heading towards another depression from trumps policies. I suspect he and Putin want that also to profit from too.

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. Put another way,

Trump attacked the FRAMEWORK OF THE CONSTITUTION. And the GOP agreed that the framework could be dissolved. So now, the framework will apply to anyone EXCEPT the Executive Branch. But the trial set the precedent. The effects of a dissolved framework WILL spread to all branches of government. If there ever were a legitimate illustration of "trickle-down" process, this will be it. The dissolution of the framework will spread downward and attack the principle assumptions that underly the criminal code. Trump's codified lawlessness will not be limited to Trump. The DOJ will have weakened standing to even prosecute cases when defendants cite Trump's "legal lawlessness."

All of the departments of the executive branch can also cite Trump's autocratic position as reason for ALL OF THEM to be lawless. The DOJ might lose standing to prosecute cases, but it will massively GAIN power to carry out Trump's various punishments and harassments of perceived enemies. Trump will use the DOJ to destroy anyone and everyone who crosses him. Watch. And stay out of the way, unless you want to risk getting chewed up.

[Merlot]

3. Not the senate as a whole, just senate republicans