A tearful Raskin talks to managers and staff after acquittal. Getty Image. Front Image MSNBC/Getty

Talk about pearls before swine. In response to the compelling, righteous case to impeach brought by Rep. Jamie Raskin, most of an unholy GOP didn't just vote to acquit; since then, they've doubled down, re-pledging themselves to their cowardice, their  fear-mongering, their moral and intellectual bankruptcy. Some of the mayhem: Wisconsin's dumb-as-a-rock Ron Johnson argues, “This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me," never mind the weapons, tasers, explosives, bats, shields, crutches, nooses, brain injuries and deaths; multiple states are lashing out at the seven who scrambled in the dark to find remnants of a spine - Wyoming's GOP censured Liz Cheney, Utah censured Mitt Romney, Maine will likely censure Susan Collins; and the faithful return to the Insurrectionist-In-Chief. A new Morning Consult/Politico poll finds Trump's popularity has rebounded - oh America of the short memory - as almost 60% of GOP voters say he should play a "major role" going foward, up 18 points since it dipped after his attempted violent takeover of the government; it also finds two and three times more GOP voters blame Joe Biden or Democrats for the riot than the guy who incited it, because Orwell still haunts us: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, conservative Sen. Pat Toomey wasn't just condemned "in the strongest terms" by Republican leaders after he voted to convict. One county chair, David Ball, went on the radio to rip him a new one and say the quiet parts aloud: "We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to 'do the right thing' - eyebrows raised in derision - or whatever he said he was doing. We sent him there to represent us." In stirring contrast, there's the inestimable lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, "the moral center of the trial." Of those Republicans who voted to acquit in the face of his "mountain of un-refuted evidence,” he said, "There’s no reasoning with people (acting) like members of a religious cult.” Nonetheless, he said, Trump was "found guilty in the court of public opinion and in the court of history." Though speaking to the Washington Post he derided the "explosive and deranged" tactics of Trump lawyers who "couldn't get a summer internship with My Cousin Vinny," during the trial Raskin repeatedly, determinedly focused on the core issues at stake, aware history was watching. "This inpeachment trial is not about Donald Trump. We all know who he is and what he is," he said. "This is about all of us and what kind of country we want for our children and grandchildren. What we do in this room will be our legacy."

Actual quote from a PA GOP official, explaining why Sen. Toomey should be censured: “We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to ‘do the right thing’ or whatever”
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— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) February 16, 2021

Hero. New York Times photo

The 43 cowards.