Damn straight there is. If either Mitt Romney or Susan Collins votes “here” when the final vote arrives, I’ll be grudgingly impressed. If either votes to convict, I’ll be stunned. Otherwise, I’m not paying much attention. To my mind, anyone who claimed to be “weighing the evidence” was simply pretending to be stupid. Trump’s grossness, his utter contempt for the law—any law other than the “law” of his own appetite—was evident for all to see, from the very get-go. Those who denied it would have denied anything, more candidates for the anteroom of Dante's Inferno, reserved for those wishy-washy folk unfit for either Heaven or Hell.1
I could throw a small rock or two at John Bolton, whose coy confessional strip-tease—“Why is everyone looking at little me?”—was as tasteless as his usual bull in the china shop shtick is obnoxious. If Bolton had had the nerve to testify before the House of Representatives and tell his full story, well, he still wouldn’t have caused Senate Republicans to vote against Trump—because the Republican rank and file is simply a Trump cult these days—but he surely would have damaged Trump and rendered him significantly less electable. But bad-ass Johnny, like everyone else wearing the Republican label these days, is nothing but a coward. It would be nice if Trump had a heart attack, they think, but otherwise they got nothing.
1. I had earlier planned a piece of the most offensive of these miscreants, to be titled "Rounding up the Collaborationists", but I figured, why waste pixels on, you know, "caitiffs"?
The House Impeachment committee never subpoenaed Bolton. Is that his fault? Anyway, the gist of his tell-all was already revealed during the impeachment, sufficient roof if any more was needed, of Trump’s guilt. Dershowitz even included it in his defense statement.
Bolton was asked to testify voluntarily and refused to do so. He also said that he would contest a subpoena if one were issued. Then he sent an “explosive” manuscript to a mainstream publisher, knowing that the “best parts” would inevitably be leaked. And, anyway, he didn’t need to be asked or subpoenaed to testify. He could have spoken up on his lonesome. But his future career in Republican politics was important to him than exposing Trump’s massive corruptions. So I feel very comfortable tossing a stone in his direction.