I have to admit that I’ve gotten bored of impeachment already. As much as I was looking forward to the Senate trial, the reality is we’ve seen this all before during the House impeachment inquiry, which was only marginally more exciting, because Democrats thought they had a slam dunk, only to see Republicans dismantle the case against Trump during their cross-examinations of witnesses.
But, even during the House inquiry, the rhetoric was repetitive, and both sides of the aisle often repeated the same talking point over and over and over. Still, I watched or listened to quite a bit of them, sifting through the noise for newsworthy tidbits.
For all the rhetoric about how historic this is, the spectacle has fallen flat, and the only people who don’t seem to realize this are in Washington DC—and they happen to be the same people running the show. It’s the same thing with judicial confirmation hearings. For the most part, the outcomes aren’t going to change no matter what anyone says, but ambitious Senators looking ahead towards the next step of their careers in politicians need to grandstand to increase their national profiles. Three Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee (Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Amy Klobuchar) ultimately launched presidential campaigns within months of the conclusion of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, after having used those hearings as their opportunity to introduce themselves to Democratic primary voters nationwide and prove their anti-Trump bona fides.