Mitch McConnell made an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Show last night. He covered a lot of ground but where the news was really made was on the subject of impeachment.

First, as you pointed out to your viewers, the Democrats have been wanting to do this for three years. The first headline in the Washington Post before the President was inaugurated was that they were going to impeach him. They finally got around to it. And we assume we will see two articles of impeachment, pretty weak stuff, coming over to us. Under the rules, of impeachment, the Senate then turns to it, has no option but to turn from it, and it is the sole business until we finish.

How we can impact that really is with just 51 votes.

The Chief Justice is in the chair and I don’t expect the Chief Justice to try to tilt the playing field either way. We will listen to the opening arguments by the House prosecutors. We’ll listen to the President’s lawyers respond. And then we’ll have to make a decision about the way forward.

Everything I do during this, I’m coordinating with the White House Counsel. There will be no difference between the President’s position and our position as to how to handle this to the extent that we can.

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We’ll working through this process, hopefully in a fairly short period of time, in total coordination with the White House Counsel’s office and the people who are representing the President in the well of the Senate.

…The President’s Counsel may or may not decide they want to have witnesses, the case is so darn weak coming over from the House. We all know how its going to end. There is no chance the President’s going to be removed from office.

McConnell also hinted that the Senate may apply Federal Rules of Evidence and disallow the so-called whistleblower’s complaint entirely.

This should not be news to anyone who has been paying attention. But it was a significant emotional event to a lot of the rabid anti-Trump people in the media and political commentariat.

Bill Kristol sees The Bulwark in danger of losing access to Pierre Omidyar’s trough by becoming more irrelevant than he is:

In Fox world, it’s “understood that Trump’s acquittal is assured in advance and that the trial will be gamed to Trump’s maximum benefit. It’s also understood that this is how it should be. The interview appears designed to reassure audiences of all this.” https://t.co/4FjTJSfTxs

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) December 13, 2019

The DNC blanks out all the pre-judging done by the Democrats:

WATCH: Senate Republicans took an oath to act as impartial jurors, yet Mitch McConnell admits that they will be working "in total coordination" with the White House for Trump's impeachment trial. pic.twitter.com/ng59dCNjag

— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) December 13, 2019

Brian Beutler remains an idiot:

Republicans uniting to shut down all testimony, like McConnell wants, would be extremely risky for vulnerable GOP senators, if the opposition party was relentless and would hound them for voting for a cover-up for the next 11 months. But McConnell knows his enemy. https://t.co/VdTHqmZfLb

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) December 13, 2019

After months of telling us that impeachment was a political, not a legal process, the slobbering, mouthbreathing left has now decided that it is a judicial process:

Question for Constitutional scholars on impeachment: Is there any kind of legal recourse for the House &/or Senate Democrats to challenge McConnell's proposed collaboration w/ the White House on Trump's own impeachment proceedings? Appears unconstitutional & oversight needed.

— Scott Hechinger (@ScottHech) December 13, 2019

Benjamin Wittes can’t bring himself to write “BOOM!” as a preface:

It’s very hard to reconcile this statement by McConnell with the special oath senators are required to take in impeachment trials under the rules. https://t.co/3naNGsAovn

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 13, 2019

The bottom line here is that the left is up against a guy who knows that they hate him and will never love or respect him and has no illusions about being able to change that. But McConnell also knows that fear is preferable to love or respect when it comes to exercising power and the Democrats are about to receive a lesson — one that they were not able to learn from the Merrick Garland episode: that McConnell is going to chart a path that he thinks gives him and the GOP maximum benefit and he could give a flying f*** about what the Democrats and their catchfarts think.