“All of us have an obligation to the Constitution, an obligation to do what we believe is right, what our oath compels us to do,” she began. “It is above politics, above partisanship.”

This was the same tired index card wielded a year ago by every Democrat lamely stretching to justify the first Trump impeachment. Refusing to explain the merits of their objections, they floated the fiction that they had no choice in the matter—that the infamous Ukrainian phone call was a matter of such objective gravity that impeachment became a moral imperative.

This was, of course, nonsense. All impeachments are a matter of choice. Those choosing that path are obligated to explain why the removal of a president is called for. The first impeachment collapsed under the weight of its partisan mischief; the current one is even more flimsy.

This makes it wholly inexplicable how ten Republicans joined Democrats in the incitement frenzy that argued with straight faces that Trump had directed the riots by delivering that morning the same objections he had voiced for two months.