January 8th 2020

By Joan McCarter

Daily Kos

After a brief flirtation with principle, spine, and independence, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is back to form. She's providing cover for Sen. Susan Collins, as she always does, to be a Donald Trump toady.

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Monday night, both Murkowski and Collins said that there's no need at all for taking former national security adviser John Bolton up on his offer to testify in an impeachment trial of Trump in the Senate, or for any witnesses at all to talk to them. They are backing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's position that the Senate can move ahead on setting the rules for the trial without an agreement for any specific witnesses to testify, just as they did in 1999 for the Clinton impeachment. "The process moved to a period during which the Senate debated and voted that three witnesses should be deposed. I believe that this process—the Clinton approach—worked well," Collins told reporters.  

The difference between 1999 and 2020 being that there actually was an agreement among leaders in the Senate—Democratic and Republican—on how to proceed. Also, then-Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican, didn't flat-out say even before the articles had been drawn up in the House that it was a foregone conclusion and that he would engineer the outcome to his own liking. So, yes, Trent Lott, who had to step down from leadership after spouting praise for segregationist Strom Thurmond, is a bastion of integrity compared to Mitch McConnell.

Collins and Murkowski know damn well that McConnell won't call witnesses. They both know that the only thing McConnell can be trusted to do is protect Trump at all costs. But for Collins, that means keeping the McConnell gravy train running. He'll keep the money flowing to her campaign as long as she keeps playing along.

There's your quid pro quo, right there.

Posted with permission