It Was Not the Scripted End

 In the final hours of Impeachment version 2.0.....this odd event occurred.

The House impeachment team wanted to open the final day of the episode by trying to depose Rep Beutler (R) who had some memory they wanted to dispute....so they wanted the witness business to open up.

It was put to a vote among the Senators...that witnesses would be allowed (55 voted in favor that it'd be fine to have 'witness-time').

So as the House folks laid out their deal....Trump's team said fine, and put up a list of 300-plus witnesses they wanted to call.

On this list....Rep Pelosi (House Speaker) was even noted.  

At this moment, the whole thing was 'doomed' (my words for the event).

Where this was leading?  Three basic issues:

1.  With 300-plus witnesses, you can figure that it'd take a minimum of a week to line them up with paperwork to show up.  If they failed?  I would imagine Federal Marshalls would be involved, and this whole thing would get rather messy.

2.  Doing witness-time with 300-plus folks?  You could be talking about four additional weeks....maybe even six weeks....of additional time.  This would have shut down the Senate entirely for the rest of Feb, and probably all of March.

3.  Finally, you would have drawn Pelosi into a sworn testimony situation.....with tons of potential that she'd admit that she hadn't had much hands-on business with the Sergeant-at-Arms people or the Capital Police.  Admitting that would have destroyed the event script for the 6th of January 'event'.

So it ended shortly after that hour....when the House folks say 'no'.....they didn't need witnesses after all.

Are we totally done now?  

No....I would expect another attempt at impeachment by the end of 2021.  I also expect the 14th Amendment process to come up.  Between now and November 2022.....the House and Senate will waste a minimum of three additional months of anti-Trump action.

That much fear of him in November 2022?  Yeah.  The House will go to another level, and I suspect five to eight Senators are looking at the end of their careers.