Ever since Nancy Pelosi first announced the launching of an impeachment inquiry, many of us jumped forward in time to the Senate trial that would follow an impeachment vote in the House, wondering out loud whether Mitch McConnell would block Donald Trump’s trial from ever taking place. I thought for sure McConnell would pull a Merrick Garland stunt and insist that the trial couldn’t take place within a year of the presidential election, and then perhaps hold a procedural vote to back up his would-be scam.

It turns out, however, that McConnell has no choice but to allow the trial to commence, should the House vote to impeach the president — and it looks like Nancy Pelosi has whipped enough votes to make it all but certain that Donald Trump will become only the third president in history to be impeached by the House, and the third to be tried in the Senate per the language of Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution.

Read the rest of Bob Cesca’s piece at Salon.