Lest anyone, especially Democrats, have forgotten, Mitch McConnell is the one who currently runs the Senate. When he sets the rules and has the votes to back them up, not even an almighty temper tantrum from Chuck Schumer will stop him.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell gave a heads-up to everyone on Tuesday evening as to what kind of schedule he was setting for the impeachment trial.

The McConnell resolution allows the House impeachment managers and president’s lawyers to present their opening arguments beginning Wednesday at 1 p.m. and gives them 24 hours each over two days to make their case. (Late Monday, the White House announced that eight House Republicans would join the president’s defense team: Reps. Doug Collins, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, Debbie Lesko, Mark Meadows, John Ratcliffe, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin.)”

Following those arguments, senators will have 16 hours to ask questions in the chamber, followed by two hours of arguments each by the House impeachment managers and the president’s lawyers. This would be followed by deliberation on a question of whether to subpoena witnesses or documents.”

It would also allow an option for a motion to dismiss the case outright immediately after the resolution is adopted, a senior Republican leadership aide said. It’s unlikely, however, that such a motion would have the Republican votes needed to pass it.”

McConnell also just wants to get this over with, so he cut down the debate time.

At least one major difference from the Clinton process has caught the eye of Democrats: The resolution cuts short the number of days each side can make arguments in the case. Rather than allow 24 hours of arguments that could extend over three days, as was the case for Clinton, McConnell’s resolution shortens the number of days to two.”

Democrats argue that would leave them arguing their case into the middle of the night and into the next morning, pushing the debate to the “dead of night,” a Democratic aide working on the trial said.”

Democrats also object to the wording of the section pertaining to votes to call new witnesses before the Senate. The rule includes a new hurdle before votes on witnesses and documents can occur: A majority of senators would have to agree to the concept of allowing witnesses and documents before they could vote on the individual pieces of evidence.”

This caused a massive hissy fit for the Democrats and the media (same difference), led by Chuck Schumer. Why the impeachment starting so late??? Why are we going to have to work at night??? Don’t you realize that we want this all to happen in prime time so that everyone will be forced to watch???

So, about that start time. Turns out that the guy that the Constitution put in charge of the impeachment trial – the Chief Justice – actually has a day job he needs to do.

The Senate is starting the impeachment trial at 1pm because the Chief Justice has court in the mornings.

You think your days are gonna be a marathon? He's got to juggle his day job with the Senate trial for as long as this lasts. https://t.co/vwIiKiv4cd

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) January 21, 2020

Also, I seem to remember that the Democrats have worked plenty at night before. Obamacare vote, anyone?

And we all know how important it was to get that “prime time” vote during the impeachment process in the House of Representatives, but McConnell has no interest in playing that game. He knows, as we all do, what the end result of this parade of shenanigans will be. Give him new nicknames and hashtags all you want, but Mitch McConnell is ready to get this over with.

Cue the temper tantrum on the Senate floor by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Schumer: "If the president is so confident in his case, if Leader McConnell is so confident that the president did nothing wrong, why don't they want the case to be presented in broad daylight?" https://t.co/aQRBEKBWY5 pic.twitter.com/C2MthJgwoq

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 21, 2020

Schumer, who is used to playing the role of smarmy bully, is also used to getting his way. Too bad that he’s been reduced to being the old man screaming at a cloud, while McConnell has the power and the votes to set the rules in the Senate right now.

There are many reasons to admire Mitch

But watching how sad and defeated Schumer is, completely broken by McConnell, is incredible

Schumer is completely impotent. Mitch outwitted him, outplayed him, outmatched him.

Schumer is good at making donor calls. Not at wielding power

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) January 21, 2020

The impeachment trial is going to get underway, and the Democrats have tried everything they know to do to either smear the president and his legal team, and to obfuscate the issues at hand. Argue all you like about the president’s conduct regarding Ukraine. The point is that Democrats are empty-handed and did not charge him with an actual underlying crime in these impeachment articles, and now Mitch McConnell will not give them time in the Senate to make up homework for extra credit.

Let’s get this thing over with.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click