The house of cards continues to collapse on the Democratic side.

As I wrote yesterday, Senate Democrats have already started to call for Nancy Pelosi to submit the articles of impeachment. This after she took the ludicrous advice of some media members to hold onto them, citing it as some kind of leverage. In reality, she had no leverage. Mitch McConnell was more than happy to simply have no trial at all and he’s since defeated her gambit in his chamber.

Now, Pelosi is losing control over her own backyard as House Democrats are starting to defect, calling for the Majority Leader to move on already and send the articles to the Senate.

Now it's happening in the House. Chairman breaks with Speaker over withholding articles. https://t.co/5vng4defLA

— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 9, 2020

The best translation of this is that Democrats realize this is a losing hand and that it’s time to put it behind them. The sooner the better for their more moderate members in swing districts, who are staring defeat in the face if this drags on too far into the election season. The American people do not support the impeachment push and for the most part, they have completely checked out in regards to caring how it turns out.

For Pelosi’s part (per Politico) she’s throwing her hands up and looking for an off ramp to avoid further embarrassment.

HERE’S WHAT’S CLEAR if you talk to House and Senate Democratic insiders: Speaker NANCY PELOSI is on the brink of ending her hold of the impeachment articles. The House is going to send them to the Senate in the near future, which will trigger the trial, most likely in the next few weeks. PELOSI has not given any hints of exactly when she might start this process, but we were told late Wednesday night this is coming soon.

This is what a total defeat looks like. Democrats took one of the dumbest political strategies ever concocted and proclaimed it brilliant with the help of their media allies. In reality, it played right into McConnell’s hands. On what planet would not continuing the impeachment process have ever produced leverage to make demands of the Senate, who hold the power to make their own rules? The truth is that Pelosi probably knew this all along but threw the Hail Mary anyway because she realized she had backed herself into a corner.

Here’s a reminder that this is dude the Democrats cited for their idiotic play.

It’s time to stop blaming @SpeakerPelosi for delaying the Senate trial. She has made clear that the only holdup is Mitch McConnell’s unwillingness to have his majority announce the rules that will permit a real trial to begin. Mitch, you say you’ve got the votes. Now PROVE IT!

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) January 9, 2020

Yeah, that’s not how this works.

This is the end game. It’s over. Pelosi has lost and now the Senate will start their trial in short order. It will not be allowed to turn into a circus and you’d struggle to find many Americans who even care anymore. In the weeks since the Democrats impeached Trump, he’s racked up win after win, including probably his biggest of his Presidency with the recent Iran dust up.

Democrats badly miscalculated here and now they will pay the price.