Eh, it was known what the result would be from the get go. Fact of the matter is: the Dems had no choice. Their base, or not even their base, the entire party membership, would not accept it if their representatives let this thing slide.

So your argument is that he shouldn't have been impeached? Dude broke the law.

"And yet, when it comes to elections, these people—the party loyalists on either side—don't really matter."

Bullshit. It all matters. The stupid-ass swing voter, who can't be bothered to even read a simple set of policy papers, or the fucking Wikipedia page of a candidate matters. So too does the stupid ass supposedly Democratic voter who just isn't feeling it this time, and really misses the tall dark and handsome guy that they voted for last time because he talked about hope, and change, and good God, he was cool. Or how about the really partisan voter -- the intellectual -- the one that can quote from Mother Jones or The Guardian about how we are destroying the earth, or poor people. Their decision to vote for Nader, or just fucking sit it out, because the whole fucking system is corrupt, goddammit, matters. It all matters. When the entire election comes down to counting chads and some poor woman in south Florida is being blamed for fucking it all up because she thought the butterfly ballot design would be easier to understand, only to find that it resulted in a ridiculous number of votes for Pat Buchanan -- by fucking Jews! -- it matters. All of that shit matters. Getting out the vote matters. Swing voters matter. There is a reason why Russians fuck with social media site, and spread bullshit. It all matters.

Oh, and Herzog, you are also missing the big picture here. The vote will take place in the Senate. Olympia Snowe is up for reelection. She is well respected for being a moderate in her home state, but her vote to confirm Kavanaugh hurt her in that regard. If she votes lockstep with the rest of the Republicans, she will be in a lot of trouble (especially if someone like Romney breaks rank). If she votes to impeach, she will be in trouble with fund raisers. This has put her (and a handful of other Republicans) in a tough spot.

This is a big fucking deal. It could be the difference between controlling the Senate or not.

@5: Olympia Snowe retired years ago. You mean Susan Collins. Cory Gardner and Martha McSalley are in the same boat as Collins.

The choice was to impeach, or to let Trump get away with forcing foreign governments to spread malicious allegations and help him get elected—again! Whatever blowback we get is worth throwing a roadblock, or at least additional scrutiny, at the subversion of our democracy.

Was it time for another Herzog Hot Take "Liberals Just Can't Do Anything Right" piece already? I guess her circulation numbers on all those Alt-right sub-Reddits must be sagging.

Tomorrow we'll get something about how mean trump is about something, because, you know: "Both Sides!"

Of all of our weak, inept, corrupt democratic institutions that’ve collapsed in the wake of Prezirapist AntiChrist’s installation in office by the (s)Electoral College against the will of the people, the implosion of the worthless traditional media has been the most fascinating to observe.

Contemporary “journalists,” with their fanatical commitment to bothsiderism, sycophantic oligarchy, and institutional racism are simply incapable of describing what’s happening and why. It’s just a horse race or a board game to them.

The RepubliKKKan party has abandoned democracy and become an openly fascist, racist, kleptocratic, criminal mob, with Emperor No Clothes as their dicktator. The last three years have been one long racist, sexist, xenophobic attack against Americans and the world by the terrorist Tr666p regime.

Their Senators are criminals voting to acquit their mob boss. It’s not any more complicated than that.

It’s darkly comical to imagine the “journalists” screaming about HER EMAILS while the Tr666pnazis are shoving us all into cattle cars on the express route to the death camps. They’ve already been branded as traitors and enemies of the people.

The goal of the impeachment isn't to win a fucking election.

"Backfiring" only matters if your goal is to literally just win elections as if being elected were the only thing that mattered. Unfortunately, there are also these little things like duty, rule of law, and the public good.

11: Yeah, I'm not entirely sure who this mythical undecided voter (who was on the fence but now loves Trump because the "deep state" is dragging him through the mud) is. There's like a causation breakdown in this kind of "journalism."

There are so many ads in the can now, and Comrade Trump is so unpopular he even got beat by a 16 yo girl, with low turnout at Davos because his Lies are so obvious, and his "trade deals" all fell through except the ones that he surrendered on.

So Weak. So sad.

@15 That's really quite good, exactly the sort of talk Dems should be fighting back with.

Fuck the fucking show trial. You got something to say, there's 100 media outlets more than willing to go OnLocation any second. Anything Bolton has to say, why fucking wait for until you're in front of the senate? Who gives a fuck, just tweet that shit.

This entire thing is a farce, the Dems predictably are so fickle and incompetent that they can't impeach DONALD TRUMP, KNOWN CRIMINAL. Sadly, Twitter Leftists pushed and pushed and pushed Pelosi to deliver the impeachment articles before all the ducks were in a row (literally, to satisfy their urge for IMMEDIATE JUSTICE, and for no other reason) and now Trump's gonna roll away with Quid Pro Quo coming our his ears.

18: Twitter leftists? It was the Senate democrats who urged her to submit them, backed up by rank-and-file Dems in the House. I never heard anything about twitter leftists motivating her decision.

I'm particularly charmed by the hypothesis @18 that Nancy Pelosi would yield to bunch of randos on Twitter.

Raindrop has a much better theory.

Back in Watergate, going to the mat for Nixon would have put severe strain on the GOP coalition. And thus came President Ford. Today, in an entirely different political world, not going to the mat for Trump is what would put the strain on the Republican coalition. So to the mat they will go. And that's all there is to it.

This is a direct consequence of the sorting of the two political parties in the second half of the 20th century.

@18 Donald Trump has been impeached. He has been and always will be. The Democrats impeached him (Republicans chose to do nothing). Say it out loud, Donald Trump was impeached.

Donald Trump being removed from office AFTER being impeached is an entirely different matter. The Republicans have no intention of removing the impeached Donald Trump from office and the Democrats do not have the votes in the Senate (as the minority) to remove the impeached Donald Trump from office.

The fact that you and so many other people do not understand this is truly incomprehensible.

Case in point:
EVERYONE knows that Bill Clinton was impeached.
EVERYONE knows that after being impeached, Bill Clinton was not removed from office.

@20: Collins voted Yay on the most meaningless of amendments. Weak-ass cover. No points.

Hhahahahahahahaha. Look at all the triggered snowflakes in this thread? This alone is worth popping the champagne bottle. Won't wait till Senate aquits. Brace yourselves, my triggered munchkins. Trump will still be your prez for 4 more years. :) MAGA! Cheers!

Ms Herzog, Trump used tax payer money to coerce a foreign country into smearing a political opponent, so he can cheat on yet another election. It doesn't matter if the trial backfire - whatever that means. The President of the United States is not above the law! If we allow him to break whichever laws he wants for his own personal benefit, then our Constitution has no meaning.

@27 Trump's approval rating has been under water for his whole term. Delusional moron

Hahahahahaha. :) @29. In that case, the Dems must REALLY, REAAAAALLY fucking incompetent if his approval is in the toilet (which it isn't. And keeps going up), and they are still powerless to stop the Trump Train. Even cheap shots like the fake ass "impeachment" didn't work!

Yeah, go back to bed, sweetheart. And have sweet dreams of your made up reality. :)

"his approval is in the toilet (which it isn't. And keeps going up)"

Nooo, it isn't going up. It hasn't budged much in 3 years. Trump's only chance is to win the electoral college again and that won't happen this time around since he is going to lose the rust belt for not delivering on his campaign promises You may be a rube, but these people know what betrayal looks like.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo

@32. Okay. Then Democrats should have no problems beating him in 2020, right? That is if they can regain the moderates they have lost, stop campaigning in Mexico (who can't fucking vote! Lol), stop campaigning on giving out Amrican healthcare to illegals for free, stop saying "drunk driving should be a misdemeanor if you are an illegal, no matter if you kill someone or not", regaining minorities/LGBT that have #walkedaway, stop campaigning on open border policies, and stop employing anti-semites (Sarsour) and commies (Sanders' campaign workers) who say "gulags were wonderful". That will never happen. Dems are too far gone. But it would be fun to watch them drown in their own tears when T-Dawg wins again. :)

Not only his approval rating has always been ~40% except for a very few days, but his disapproval rating has been over 50% for over 3 fucking years. This hasn't happened in modern time for any president (no pres had disapproval greater than ~40% see link @32). It would be truly extraordinary if Trump was reelected. Trump knows he has very little chance, which is the reason he has been trying to pull all the dirty tricks (including bribes) to rig the elections.

I am full of red wine and declare DEATH TO ALL GOP PIGFUCKERS, STARTING WITH TRUMP, PENCE, MCCONNELL, and KAVANAUGH!
@33 :Fuck you and the cheap cur that bore you and thirteen ugly rat turds.

Wondering if Trump should be impeached/fired is like expecting customers to care if the CEO gets fired from a big company. They get customer's money, but it's something they have every right to do if that CEO did something very wrong.

I love your writing normally katie but i think you and nearly every other journalist is fucking up big time by saying shit like this. We don’t have a fucking choice. You’re naive if you think we have a chance of saving this country without impeachment succeeding. And nothing makes our case look worse than journalists saying it guaranteed won’t work but they’re doing it anyway. Liberals need to stop worrying about feeling smart when they talk and start giving a damn about reality. Trump will be removed because we have to remove him. Shut up about polling and “strategy” and “people from the midwest don’t care”. They’re sure as shit not going to care when you start off by telling them it doesn’t matter anyway. Liberals saying “impeachment won’t work” is the new “well, I’m not happy about it, but I’m voting for Hillary”. Republicans are out for blood and we’re just like “well, they seem like they want to win, so they definitely will”.

@37. Robert O' Rourke took his campaign to Mexico, dumb fuck. From your own leftist sourse;

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/06/30/politics/beto-orourke-mexico-asylum-seekers/index.html

27: That's real rich coming from the biggest crybabies on the planet.

Are you do is get triggered all day.

27: That's real rich coming from the biggest crybabies on the planet.

All you assholes do is get triggered all day.

@40 and @41. Hahahahahaha. :D. JMS was so triggered, he posted twice. Must be that shaking fingers from the blood pressure going up. :D Awwwww, munchkin....

42: Enjoy your tolling fascist.

@42. Hahahahaha. "Tolling" lol. What's a "tolling fascist"? Hahahahahahaha. Keep your blood pressure down, you'll type better. Or maybe you are just too dumb to know how to. I will stick with the latter.

@45. That is the peoblem.with you, leftists; you never read anything past the headline.

"The former Texas congressman will meet IN MEXICO with people who are seeking asylum, predominantly from the "Northern Triangle" countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and are being forced to wait outside the country for the duration of their immigration proceedings under President Donald Trump's administration's "Remain in Mexico" program -- which O'Rourke's campaign said is "unlawful".

Double lolski/maga. :)

@19 I guess those Dems just acted upon the will of their sky-gods.

@20 auto correct. I mean feckless.

@24 you've got your head in your ass if you don't see twitterati making meaningful impacts on policy. Where do you think Warren's college debt forgiveness idea came from, just to give one example.

@25 I don't care for your meaningless semantic argument. Call me when Trump's removed from office. I don't care if the formal papers were signed to have a trial, literally nobody should give a shit about it if doesn't result in termination of the Trump's presidency.