The world’s greatest deliberative body? Faced with two challenging tasks in the same year, the leadership of the U.S. Senate announced in advance of any deliberations what the results would be.

Our president, seeking to further his own agenda for his own reelection, pressured a foreign government to announce an investigation into his opponent’s family. Impeachment?

The same president, with the same enabling leadership in the Senate, hurried a nomination to the country’s highest court so that the nominee will be in place in time to rule on health care, abortion rights bans, and even challenges to the president’s reelection prospects.

In each case, the Senate’s leadership announced prior to the opening gavel, “We know the result.” In fact, even before the name of the Supreme Court nominee was known, Republicans crowed they “had the votes.”

The lesson seems to be that power corrupts and the search for power corrupts.

Jim Perkins

Wayne