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The Final Vote:  We knew that given the Republican domination of the Senate there was no way that 60 Senators would vote to convict Trump so the ultimate outcome of yesterday’s “jury” vote was never in doubt.  That said, until the end, it wasn’t clear how Democrats Joe Manchin, Doug Jones and Kyrsten Sinema would vote nor was it clear what Mitt Romney would do.  Though the White House wasn’t sure, they expected that at least one of the three Democrats would find Trump not-guilty and they assumed that Romney would feel too pressured to do otherwise.  Trump was so confident of that outcome that he had plans to invite the press into the Oval Office where he was meeting with Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido, one of his surprise guests from Tuesday nights’ political rally/state of the union speech.  Trump’s had intended to celebrate his “bipartisan exoneration.”  That never happened, Trump’s team scuttled their plans after learning that Romney, the independently wealthy one time Republican presidential candidate had decided that instead of bowing to Trump, he would answer to his real higher authority.  Romney surprised everyone, including Mitch McConnell, Trump and his Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle by using his allocated 2 pm vote announcement time slot to deliver an emotionally charged explanation of his decision to vote to convict Trump on the Abuse of Power charge. Romney made it clear that he had anguished over the decision, had pushed hard for additional testimony and evidence in the hope that some of it would be exculpatory but that in the absence of any of that and given the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s guilt he had no choice but to vote to convict because he wanted his children and grandchildren to know that he’d done the right thing and because he took his oath and his allegiance to his higher authority seriously. Trump should have seen this coming, Romney’s father George, the former Michigan Governor who had been  a member of the Nixon cabinet reached a similar conclusion about Nixon. The Senate chamber was largely empty during Romney’s speech, but two Democrats, Senators Murphy and Schatz, who were in attendance were so affected by Romney’s decision, no other Senator has ever crossed party lines to vote for the conviction of a president from their party, that they emerged crying.

Upon learning of Romney’s decision, Don Jr cried too, he labeled Romney a “pussy” and called for him to be expelled from the Senate GOP conference,} he said that while circulating a  picture of Romney in “mom jeans.”  Really, he did that.  Romney’s niece, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel saved her position by immediately making it clear that she was Team Trump all the way, saying “This is not the first time I’ve disagreed with Mitt, and I imagine it will not be the last. The bottom line is President Trump did nothing wrong, and the Republican Party is more united than ever behind him. I, along with the GOP, stand with President Trump.”  Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham who earlier in her career worked for Romney called him nothing more than a “failed Republican presidential candidate.” For good measure she also called Adam Schiff a liar and seemed to call for retribution against Speaker Pelosi and all of Trump’s enemies, a list that now includes Romney. For his part, Romney said he knows that he will now suffer the consequences of his action but that he can live with that.  I can’t say that I agree with many, if any, of Romney’s political positions but I am ready to forgive him for that whole “binders of women” thing and will also cut him some slack for traveling with his dog on his car roof, well okay only a little slack for that.   As to those three Democrats, they also ruined Trump’s morning.  All three of them voted Trump guilty on both charges, a particularly risky decision for Alabama’s Jones who is up for reelection this year in Trump loving Alabama; he is already being targeted for his decision.  To no one’s surprise those highly sensitive Senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who were totally outraged when Adam Schiff repeated that CBS report about Trump threatening to see his opponents “heads on pikes,” don’t appear at all concerned that Trump is already doing his best to see Jones and Romney suffer.  Romney will be fine, he’s not up for reelection for five years, but Jones not so much. If you are so inclined, consider an ActBlue donation to Doug Jones campaign.  He’ll need all the help he can get.

Incomplete Iowa:  Impeachment is over, or over until Trump commits his next outrageous crime, but believe it or not the Iowa caucus is not.  Results are still pouring in and it’s still not clear who won.  With 97% of the vote counted Pete Buttigieg’s lead has shrunk, he appears to have earned 26.2% of the delegate equivalents to Bernie Sanders’ 26.1%.  The remaining unaccounted for votes appear to be trending in Sanders direction so it’s possible that Sanders will end up the eventual victor. Notably, Sanders, who also received more popular votes than Buttigieg, won significantly more votes during the first round of the caucus process, an indication that Buttigieg’s leaderboard position is largely attributable to the fact that he benefited more after the votes for candidates who failed to reach the 15% qualifying level were reallocated to their second choices.  If this sounds complicated, it’s because it is, in the Iowa caucus, as in the national election, a candidate can win more votes and still not earn the most delegates.  As to the infamous APP created by the appropriately named Shadow company, it turns out that in addition to its other problems it lacked adequate security and was easily hackable.  Yikes.  Anyway, the candidates are now off campaigning in New Hampshire, where Bernie is likely to emerge on top in next week’s primary.  They aren’t just campaigning, on Friday night they will be on the stage for another debate.  This month’s round of “whose health care solution is best” will feature the five candidates who actually earned some Iowa delegates, Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar as well as those lagging wannabees Yang and Steyer.   

NY Pikes: Speaking about retribution, Trump is now going after all New Yorkers regardless of party affiliation.  Last night the Department of Homeland Security suspended New Yorkers from enrolling in the Global Entry program and certain other related programs as payback for the state’s new law that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for NYS driver’s licenses while protecting applicants’ personal information from being shared with immigration agencies, kind of a follow on to the part of Trump’s speech where he highlighted the death of a woman who was killed by an undocumented immigrant.   So far the TSA pre check program is not affected.  Safe traveling?