Dem
51
GOP
49
The House impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on February 13. That is 58 days ago. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) neglected to deliver the articles to the Senate, because he was just too busy with budget matters to take a 3-minute walk. Then, he did not deliver them because the House was in recess for 2 weeks. He promised that today would be the day, but... nope. He announced yesterday that he's going to sit on them for another week. "To ensure the Senate has adequate time to perform its constitutional duty, the House will transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. There is no reason whatsoever for the Senate to abdicate its responsibility to hold an impeachment trial," explained a spokesman for Johnson.
So, what's really going on? Well, it's a poorly kept secret that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is prepared to pencil-whip this thing into oblivion, either by having the Senate dismiss the articles of impeachment, or by sending them to some committee, for debate and consideration right after the committee marks up the bill addressing the nation's flying pigs problem, and the one that will combat global warming by arranging for hell to freeze over.
Not giving any time or attention to the impeachment is surely the right tactical call. The Senate has important business and can ill afford to waste 100 members' time on stunts. Further, treating the articles of impeachment seriously, even if it's for only a day or two, gives the impression that they are worthy of being taken seriously. If Schumer reroutes them straight to the circular file, by contrast, the whole thing will be quickly forgotten, except by people who were never going to vote Democratic anyhow.
Given Schumer's plan, Senate Republicans (well, the MAGA crew) are trying to scare up enough votes to force the upper chamber to hold an actual trial. The fact that they've had 58 days to do this, and have not succeeded, does not bode well for their being able to pull it off with benefit of an extra 7 days. So, the odds are that there will either be another extension next week, or that the Republicans will accept that they're not getting anywhere with this, and they'll need to find a different subject for the April installment of GOP Kabuki Theater. (Z)