I have no idea what will happen next, but I don't think the dozens of millions of citizens who voted blue last night are going to want to be told, "Sorry, there's nothing we can do about the crook. We just have to wait until the clock runs out and he's good and ready to depart with his loot."

But that's the truth. You have to tell them that, because it's the truth. There's nothing you can do about Trump. He will remain President until his term expires.

If you tell them otherwise, then they will be enraged at you because you lied to them. You told them that it mattered whether he was impeached a third time. And it won't. He'll be acquitted in the Senate, and then what?

He's allowed his children and his hangers-on to gorge at the trough of public corruption. Go after them. Go after the people for whom consequences don't depend on 12 Republican Senators blowing up their political career by voting to impeach a President of their own party.

If you are a Republican Senator who's up in two years, aren't you going to be trying to save whatever shred of your ass remains?

Yeah - by not voting to convict a President of my own party, that's for damn sure. Being a turncoat, even for principle, never enhances your political prospects. If you're appealing to their self-interest, that's a losing battle - it will never be in their self-interest to vote to convict Trump.