So, it's over – for now at least.Thursday was the last day of Congressional public hearings on the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.Some things are now clear:
- Whether rising to impeachment levels or not, Donald Trump is in a lot of trouble
- The professional intelligence and diplomatic presentations were something of a revelation in their decorum, non-partisanship and high-level competence – a reality that clearly rose above the cut and thrust nature of the political participation.
- The House will vote for impeachment, leaving the president's political future decided in the Senate.
- The blurring of the lines between truth and fabrication revealed in the hearings has risen to a level unlike anything in the American experience
- The president's refusal to allow any of his principal players – Bolton, Mulvaney, Perry, Pompeo – to testify meant that the burden fell on the professionals in Intelligence and the State Department to deliver the truth. This they did with forceful accuracy.