Will senators use ‘McCain Rule’ with impeachment?

The last phrase of the Declaration of Independence explains why Donald Trump will survive an impeachment trial and why the senators who will serve as jurors should avoid taking oaths, which would only transform them into even worse liars.

At the end of the declaration America’s founders wrote, “we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” Imagine that.

And notice how they phrased it. They didn’t pledge their sacred lives or their sacred fortunes. I’m sure they valued their lives and their fortunes. But the thing that was sacred to them was their honor.

Sacred.

And they meant it.

Which these days would make them … unelectable.

At least if they are Republicans. Republican senators swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Their loyalty, however, is only to Donald Trump. Although it isn’t loyalty. It’s fear. Already we know that no matter how convincing the evidence is against Trump – and there is plenty – they will ignore it.

The defense of the president began with a claim that there was “no quid pro quo.” Then it to, “Well, maybe there was a quid pro quo but it wasn’t that bad.” Then it pirouetted to the Sen. Lindsey Graham version, which claims the administration is “too stupid orchestrate a quid pro quo.”

We should call what happened by its more understandable name.

Attempted extortion. Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden or the U.S. would hold onto the $400 million in military aid. Using a foreign government to promote a personal political agenda is a crime.

Ignoring Congressional subpoenas can also be an impeachable offense. It’s called obstruction.

But will evidence matter?

Once members of the House pass the articles of impeachment over to the Senate, the senators will swear an oath like jurors in a criminal trial. Promising to consider the evidence in an unbiased manner.

The Republicans shouldn’t do that, because that would be a lie.

And if U.S. senators make a mockery of oath taking in an impeachment trial, why should it matter to anyone else? To jurors in criminal and civil trials. To doctors. First responders. Members of the military. And so on.

In 1999, during the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, Sen. John McCain laid out what it means to take an oath. Is there any chance – any chance at all – that late senator’s fellow Republicans will follow the “McCain Rule” on such a thing. Honestly? No.

Still, it’s worth remembering what McCain said, if only to remind ourselves of what the founders believed and put down on paper. McCain said:

“We are asked to judge whether the President, who swore an oath to faithfully execute his office, deliberately subverted – for whatever purpose – the rule of law.

“All of my life, I have been instructed never to swear an oath to my country in vain. In my former profession, those

who violated their sworn oath were punished severely and considered outcasts from our society.

“I do not hold the President to the same standard that I hold military officers to. I hold him to a higher standard. Although I may admit to failures in my private life, I have at all times, and to the best of my ability, kept faith with every oath I have ever sworn to this country. I have known some men who kept that faith at the cost of their lives.

“Presidents are not ordinary citizens.

They are extraordinary, in that they are vested with so much more authority and power than the rest of us. We have a right; indeed, we have an obligation, to hold them strictly accountable to the rule of law.”

“All of my life, I have been instructed never to swear an oath to my country in vain.” John McCain