Mitch McConnell’s Fatal Mistake

President Trump is officially acquitted, and Mitch McConnell hasn’t said much about it yet, but he’s clearly savoring a victory that has been more than a year in the making.

He may come to change his mind. His version of a trial with no evidence and no witnesses will certainly make him a hero to Trump’s base, and may go down as his second greatest career achievement. But politically, he just signed his own death warrant.

Not because of any Democratic backlash in the November elections. There may not be one nationally, and it’s hard to imagine one in his home state of Kentucky. Trump is on pace to tell another four thousand lies or so between now and November 3rd, which is more than enough to make everyone forget just what an offense this trial was to American democracy itself.

After 35 years in the Senate, McConnell knows how long the anger of American voters can linger. (Not long.) Underestimating the voters is not the mistake he made. But for the man who’s long been recognized as one of the Senate’s greatest tacticians, the acquittal of President Trump is just an astonishingly shortsighted move.

The Democrats served it up to him on a silver platter. He could have coasted to another four years in power, controlling the Senate under a Republican president. He could have installed at least one and likely two more Brett Kavanaughs on the Supreme Court, giving conservatives a 7–2 majority for the rest of his natural life. All he had to do was convict and remove Trump, and install…