If it was the hope of anyone in the Senate, American or Democrat, that the House ‘impeachment managers’ would be able to act like anything other than a pack of enraged chimpanzees throwing feces, those hopes were dashed today.

The ‘impeachment managers’ have sent a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone demanding that he recuse himself from the trial because he is a “material fact witness” to one of the alleged offenses in the comically fraudulent Articles of Impeachment.

The rest of the letter: pic.twitter.com/R3LiMMcmZD

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 21, 2020

There are some obvious points here that seem to have escaped Adam Schiff and his fluffers.

• The House had the opportunity to call Cipollone as a witness during their investigation. For whatever reason, they elected to not do so. This failure would seem to undercut the entire idea that he is a material witness who is vital to the trial but whose testimony was not vital to the investigation.
• It seems to have escaped the attention of Schiff that this is not a legal proceeding. Indeed, it would be hard to find something further from a legal proceeding than what his about to take place.
• Mitch McConnell will ultimately decide who the witnesses are, not Schiff.
• Pat Cipollone, in conjunction with McConnell, not Schiff, will be the final arbiter of what must be disclosed and to whom.
• Schiff is attempting to dictate Senate rules by way of letter because there is no procedural basis for Schiff’s demand for Cipollone’s disclosure of what is pretty obviously privileged conversations.

Get used to this stunt because there is a lot more in store. And make no mistake about it, this is just a stunt designed to be sucked up by a credulous press and regurgitated to the public because any serious complaint would have been addressed to the Senate Majority Leader.

Val Deming (I have to admit being blissfully ignorant of the existence of this assclown until today), one of the ‘impeachment managers,’ has demanded that Mitch McConnell recuse himself.

Impeachment manager Val Demings has called for McConnell's recusal from Senate trialhttps://t.co/sO5ESk4i3z

— Scoot (@ImpeachmentHour) January 16, 2020

What the Democrats are trying to do is brand the whole trial as a “cover up” because that is the only way they can avoid looking like utter rubes. To do that, they have to discredit the GOP leadership and the President’s defense team. You’re seeing the outlines now. McConnell (and you can bet Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul and others will be added to this list) will be painted as corrupt and the President’s defense team will be labeled as co-conspirators.

While these tactics will not work outside the most vitriolic NeverTrump ghettos, they will have one guaranteed effect. They will end up forcing the entire Senate GOP caucus to come to the defense of fellow members and, in the process, they will alienate the four or five weakest GOP senators whose votes they will desperately need to avoid public humiliation.