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Editors note: This column was filed on Thursday, the day after the House impeachment vote.

Donald Trump is the third U.S. President to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. Neither of the first two was convicted in the Senate, and I dont for a moment believe Trump will be.

It requires 67 Senators to vote for conviction which, given the current makeup of the Senate, would require 20 Republicans to vote to convict. And that isnt going to happen unless something even more scandalous is revealed before the vote. But even that might not be enough to force Republican Senators to consult their consciences rather than their re-election prospects.

The Republican Party no matter how often its members proclaim it is no longer the party of Lincoln. Frankly, it hasnt been for some time. But it has now indisputably become the party of Trump. That has driven some fairly well known people out of the party including columnist George Will, conservative Congressman Justin Amish, and former Congressman Charlie Dent. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich regularly appears on television news shows condemning Trump and castigating fellow Republicans for supporting him.

I know more than a few Republican office holders and activists who privately condemn Trump but wont say so publicly. Several congressional reporters from national media outlets say many Republican Senators privately grumble about Trump but also will not say so publicly.

The reason is simple: theyre afraid Trump supporters will abandon them in a Republican primary for a Trump supporter. Look at South Carolinas Lindsey Graham who used to emulate John McCain but would be an embarrassment to McCain now if the former POW and Arizona Senator were still alive. Graham initially called Trump a nut job. In October, Graham called Trumps decision to pull troops out of Syria a stain on Americas honor. Now he dismisses the charges against Trump and tells us hes had his mind made up about impeachment in advance of trial.

That brings us to Kentuckys Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader who will control the impeachment trial in the Senate.

Trump and McConnell are about as unlike as two people can be. One has zero self-discipline while the other is as disciplined a politician as Ive ever known. Trump is bombastic and crude; McConnell is generally polite and reserved even as he sticks the knife in an opponent with some sarcastic comment or well-aimed television ad.

McConnell labored for years to build todays Republican Party of Kentucky and he, more than any other person, turned the state red from blue. But just as he was on the cusp of realizing all his dreams turning Kentucky Republican and becoming Senate Majority Leader his party began to morph into something alien and unexpected.

First, Rand Paul took down a McConnell protg for the Senate. McConnell made peace with him but the rise of the Tea Party and later Matt Bevins Senate challenge and election as governor forced McConnell to worry about threats to his own political prospects from the right. Had he created a Republican Kentucky only to be rejected not by Democrats but by the right wing of his own party? Then came Trump.

Despite making nice, Bevin and McConnell never liked each other. Yet McConnell pushed for Bevin to run for re-election. Watching from afar, one had to wonder if McConnell worried Bevin, who seems to have become friends with Trump, might challenge McConnells bid for another term next year and Trump might endorse Bevin.

So, despite the Constitutions requirement that senators sitting in judgment of an impeached president shall be on Oath or Affirmation, McConnell has already declared his allegiance to Trump, telling Fox News, Everything I do during this, Im coordinating with the White House counsel and that there will be no difference between the presidents position and our position...

Im fairly confident thats not the way the Framers envisioned it working.

Ronnie Ellis is the former statehouse reporter for CNHI Kentucky and writes a weekly column. Follow him on Twitter @cnhifrankfort.

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Republicans and impeachment | Columns - Morehead News