You’ve got to hand it to the Democrats -- they can hold their caucus together for the flimsiest of causes.  The GOP, though, has all these RINOs who have to establish their independence; they’re willing to break party unity when it serves their own ambitions. Three senators – Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitt Romney of Utah – are rumored to be willing for witnesses to be called in the impeachment trial now underway in the Senate. Obviously, such a slowdown benefits the Democrats, who want the impeachment to headline news reports as long as possible. Further and more importantly, it was the House’s responsibility to build its case by compiling evidence and presenting it to the Senate for a trial; it is not the Senate’s responsibility to gather evidence.

The Democratic case lacks “overwhelming evidence” as Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa said, calling the whole process “a political exercise.” Ernst and others, like Lindsey Graham, are unwilling to extend the trial and accomplish the Democrat’s goal of dominating headlines in the run-up to the November elections.

The question is whether the three RINOs mentioned above will put the good of the country above their own emotional needs or self-interest.

Take Senator Mitt Romney.  Remember when he needed endorsements when running for President?  He went to New York to ask for Trump’s endorsement. He got it.  Remember, after he lost the Presidency, he ran for senator from Utah. He sought and received Trump’s endorsement. Typically, such political favors generate appreciation and are reciprocated.   Not so with Romney. With the usual caveats of being “deeply concerned” and finding it “very troubling,” Romney turned against Trump over the Ukraine farce, calling the President’s actions illegal and unpresidential. Now that the impeachment circus has moved to the Senate for trial, Romney is joining with those demanding witnesses. Digging deeper, it turns out that one of Romney’s top advisors is a former high-ranking CIA official Joseph Cofer Black who, it just happens, is on the board of Burisma Holdings, the same company that has been so generous to Hunter Biden. There is little question that Romney will ultimately do what benefits him most when it comes to his votes in the impeachment trial.

Senator Susan Collins is following the trial very closely and is taking copious notes. She reacted strongly to House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler’s accusation against the Republican senators; he claimed they voted “for a cover-up when they opposed subpoenas at the trial.” She sent a note to Chief Justice John Roberts and granted an interview to Politico complaining about the accusation. In this election year, Senator Collins is between the proverbial rock and a hard place. She has to hold on to independent voters to win her fifth six-year term in November. She is showing the stress of the pressures to get her to push for witnesses and additional evidence. George Conway (Kellyanne’s husband and well-known Anti-Trump tweeter who has founded a super-PAC opposing the president) is demanding that Collins “do her job” instead of “covering” for the president. Already, Collins has shown her willingness to break ranks with the GOP; she voted as the lone Republican “for one of the 11 amendments proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer” even though the amendment was doomed for defeat. It remains to be seen what she will consider in her personal best interest as the trial moves forward.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is considered a sure ally of the Democrats, but she has gone on record “questioning whether it makes sense to call for fresh evidence.” Further, she pointed out the irony of the Democrats not wanting to slow things down by involving the courts, but now wanting to get the courts involved. Then, there is the irony of the Democrats rushing the case through the House without allowing time for witnesses for the defense, but now wanting to drag things out by calling for new witnesses. With the leak of information from former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s forthcoming book about his time on the President’s staff, Murkowski has signaled her openness to hearing testimony from Bolton.

As the Senate trial moves from opening statements from the GOP to the Q and A period, the votes of the three RINOs will be key in determining whether Bolton and Biden, as well as other witnesses, will be allowed the draw out the trial or whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can hold his caucus together and wrap up the trial putting an end this orchestrated attempt to remove the duly elected president that began the moment he was sworn in. This sham business is so egregious that on Monday, Harvard law professor and television legal commentator, Alan Dershowitz -- not a Trump ally by any stretch of the imagination -- declared authoritatively that even if the accusations in Bolton’s book are true, they do not “rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense."

Dershowitz, along with Jonathan Turley, has declared the impeachment case to be -- in today’s lingo -- a nothingburger. Certainly, nothing yet throws McConnell’s fast-track trial timeline into question. The RINO trio -- Murkowski, Romney, and Collins -- could threaten that timeline. Reports indicate they are discussing joining the Democrats to demand testimony from witnesses -- specifically John Bolton. Despite that possibility, latest projections are that the GOP majority will likely vote -- as soon as the end of this work week -- to acquit Trump and end the tawdry circus. As Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said, “We deal with transcript evidence, we deal with publicly available information.  We do not deal with speculation, allegations that are not based on evidentiary standards at all.”

With a case based entirely on speculation and secondhand suppositions as to motivation and intent, most people see no scenario where the Senate will vote to remove Trump from office. Why continue the trial for a sham of an impeachment? In his New York Post op-ed, Michael Goodwin, summarized the situation: “Even with Bolton, the basic facts of the Ukraine matter remain too light and too small to bear the enormous burden of removing an elected president.”

This impeachment is a specious attempt to overturn a legitimate election conducted in accordance with the provisions of our constitution. Further, it is a naked abuse of power and cannot be allowed to succeed -- not in order to benefit Trump’s political standing, but for the sake of the continuation of this great republic and the voting processes that keep it truly a representative republic. Our nation was brought into existence by patriots who risked all that they had and their very lives to grant us the opportunity to govern ourselves free from the tyranny of a ruling class -- a ruling class not unlike the current cabal of elitists who are intent on wresting control over our government from the hands of “We the People.”