COCAINE MITCH DON’T MESS AROUND: McConnell fires back: Let’s adopt the 1999 rules — with the option for dismissal. “Remember when the Senate could come to a unanimous, bipartisan approach to rules governing an impeachment trial? Good times, good times. In fact, those were such good times that Mitch McConnell wants to bring them back. Rather than keep having his counterpart Chuck Schumer negotiate via MSNBC, the Senate Majority Leader announced that he’ll simply reinstate the rules package that governed Bill Clinton’s impeachment twenty years ago. By the way, that also includes a dismissal option.”

Plus: “It’s not just Schumer who will be stuck in a vise. Voters will likely see this re-use of previously unanimous rules as a reasonable and fair approach. Any Democrats who vote against this set of rules will have to explain why they suited Bill Clinton’s impeachment but aren’t sufficient for Donald Trump’s. The only substantial difference between them is that Clinton’s impeachment clearly established a statutory crime (perjury), while House Democrats have established nothing of the sort, and are relying solely on hearsay and conjecture for both articles of impeachment.”