Jonah Goldberg: Age of impeachment & death of shame

As the impeachment trial fizzled out, I’m left wondering if the GOP has lost its mind, because the only other choice is that I have.

I’m not referring to the Republican senators’ collective decision not to remove the president from office. I’ve always argued that this was a question reasonable people could differ on. But I’ve also argued for months now that it was clear the president was guilty of abusing his office by pressuring the Ukrainian government to target former Vice President Joe Biden in a corruption probe.

This has been obvious since he released the transcript of his conversation with the Ukrainian president, never mind when he said straight to a TV camera that he wanted Ukraine (and China) to do it.

For most of that time, taking their cues from the top, the president’s most ardent defenders treated this entirely reasonable observation as if it was both crazy and outrageous. The call was “perfect,” t he president insisted over and overagain. How dare you suggest otherwise.

What was otherworldly has suddenly become grounded. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Marco Rubio, R- Fla., were the first out of the block to explain that the president is guilty but shouldn’t be ousted for it.

In a statement, Rubio explained that he always worked from the assumption the charges were true, but: “Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office.”

Alexander was even more emphatic. In his statement, he said the House managers “have proved (the charges) with what they call a ‘mountain of overwhelming evidence.’”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, went even further, saying, rightly, that the president’s conduct has been “shameful.”

Some Trumpists are grumbling about Murkowski, but it’s remarkable how it was so much more outrageous for Trump’s defenders to note Trump’s guilt when doing so might influence the trial. Now that he’s off the hook, few are calling these senators crazy for stating the obvious.

But such selective deployment of outrage is the GOP’s gift these days.

Consider that one of the best — as in effective — arguments of the White House legal team was that “partisan impeachments” are bad and if the Senate validates this one we will dive further into an “age of impeachment” — Kenneth Starr’s words — in which this constitutional mechanism will be weaponized for political advantage. It is difficult to exaggerate the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger hypocritical sanctimony from the president’s lead lawyers on this point.

But once the president’s acquittal was assured, Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said that now that the door to partisan impeachments had been opened, maybe Republicans should impeach Biden if he were elected. Her fellow Republicans didn’t rush to deny the possibility. Partisan impeachments, you see, aren’t bad anymore, they’re just bad when “they” do it.

Starr may be right that we are entering an “age of impeachment.” But if we are it will be because hypocrisy has lost its sting, shame is something only the other side should feel, and telling the truth when it is inconvenient is a form of madness.