“If a President does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.” Stop. Read that argument made by Alan Dershowitz in front of the Senate and the Supreme Court Chief Justice a few times; not just because it’s pathetically sad, dangerously wrong, and one of the more jaw-droppingly embarrassing moments in the history of American jurisprudence, but because it marks a new ridiculous low when many assumed the bottom had been reached—and because it still has a good chance of being part of a whitewash that will result in a trial without witnesses (even those witnesses screaming from the sidelines). The New Yorker: Alan Dershowitz for the Defense: L’État, C’est Trump. (L’État, C’est F–ked…)

+ As the legal world snapped back, Dersh Vader went full Fox News and blamed the media: “They characterized my argument as if I had said that if a president believes that his re-election was in the national interest, he can do anything. I said nothing like that, as anyone who actually heard what I said can attest.” (The exact words you all heard and saw me say were not at all what I said. Still wondering why Trump and Dersh get along?)

+ Dershowitz went to Yale and teaches at Harvard. Maybe this is all part of a Trump plot, because even I hate elites now. Aside from the Constitution and the rule of law, the other big casualties of Dersh’s argument are those who have taken his courses at Harvard, particularly: Ethics and Tactics in Criminal Law. (Alan Dershowitz teaching a course on ethics is like me teaching a course on keeping one’s opinions to oneself.)

+ Meanwhile, the Q and A period continues on the floor of the Senate. The Chief Justice refused to read a question, Schiff called the Trump team’s arguments, “a descent into constitutional madness,” and Rand Paul and others want the name of the whistleblower read aloud (because that’s the only thing that could make this sham even shammier.) Here’s the latest from CNN and WaPo.

+ And, a totally unrelated aside that I just thought might be of interest: The Obituaries of Republicans Who Opposed Nixon’s Impeachment.