Donald Trump's BFF in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, is working really hard to make impeachment go away. That includes stretching the Constitution beyond its limits and trying to arbitrarily change Senate rules to allow the Senate to dismiss the charges even before the House sends the articles of impeachment over.
On, where else, Fox News Channel's Sunday Morning Futures, Graham said "If we don't get the articles this week, then we need to take matters in our own hands and change the rules. Deem them to be delivered to the Senate." There's nothing written anywhere in the Constitution about the Senate being allowed to "deem" impeachment articles delivered. That could be enough to make four Republican senators balk at any attempt by Graham to force this rule change, which would require 51 votes. "My goal is to start this trial in the next coming days, not let Nancy Pelosi take over the Senate," Graham bloviated.
As of Friday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn't sounding enthusiastic about any such tricks, saying "for now, we are content to continue the ordinary business of the Senate while House Democrats continue to flounder." By ordinary business, he means jamming through nominations and ignoring the hundreds of pieces of legislation the "floundering" House has sent over since Democrats took over last January.
Chances are pretty good Graham just said that to kiss up to Trump, knowing he was likely watching or would catch on DVR. McConnell won't need to resort to quite so radical measures to turn the impeachment hearings into a sham and likely doesn't want to, since some of his senators (Susan Collins) need the proceedings to at least have a gloss of legitimacy. It's not that McConnell isn't willing to do just about anything to keep Republicans in power, it's whether a move this drastic would help in that.
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