My new Bloomberg Opinion column:
Politicians are never less sincere than when they argue about process. They typically speak as though high principle is at stake, even though they’ve discovered the principle only three minutes previously and it happens to yield a convenient result. So it is with the arguments over how the Senate should conduct its impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, arguments that have mainly showcased how heavily each party can tax the capacity for belief.
Start with the Democrats. It’s true, just as the Republicans are saying, that they acted as though the House had no time to spare in impeaching Trump, and then had all the time in the world to send the indictment to the Senate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted the House, and especially House Democrats in districts friendly to Trump, to be done with this issue as soon as possible, and then wanted Senate Republicans to linger on it. So the same House that spent eight days on hearings on impeachment delayed forwarding the articles of impeachment for 28 days. . . .