Senate to emerge from impeachment trial guilty of extreme partisanship

He denied the charge.This time, senators spoke so little to one another that some Democrats believed Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) might lead a GOP rebellion to call witnesses — when in fact Alexander never viewed the case as anywhere near his threshold for removing a president.McConnell claimed he would model this trial on the 1999 impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, with a format that would allow the House managers to present their case, have the president’s legal team rebut it and then go into a two-day question-and-answer session.That much resembled the Clinton trial over the past two weeks, but little else did.Back then the Senate called three witnesses and held private, videotaped depositions. When the presentations ended in 1999, the Senate closed its doors and held off-the-record deliberations that spanned more than 22 hours over three days.Some decried the private sessions as a blow against transparency, but the senators of that era have long recalled those jury deliberations as one of their most meaningful experiences — they talked to one another; they didn’t preen for the cameras.Instead of such an experience this time, McConnell and Schumer negotiated a deal to adjourn the chamber for the weekend, hold closing arguments Monday and then allow senators to give public speeches explaining their votes until the scheduled 4 p.m. Wednesday vote.Even Alexander said he doesn’t see the point of private deliberations.“I don’t really see the need — the question is, did he do it?