The National Prayer Breakfast is a dish best served cold. It’s there that the president’s impeachment victory lap began in earnest (and oddly, included no laughtrack). Holding up a newspaper (to really hammer home the irony) with a headline that read Acquitted, Trump complained about his unfair treatment: “As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people.” (The Senate GOP made a real mess(iah) of things this time…) From AP: At Prayer Breakfast, Trump unleashes fury at impeachment. (I miss the old days when the only thing unleashed at prayer breakfasts were the bagels.)

+ The prayer breakfast was followed by a press conference that featured more of the Gospel of Saint Don: “These people are vicious. Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person. And she wanted to impeach a long time ago.” (Too bad it’s not possible to rip a news conference in half.)

+ “They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong.” Sherrod Brown in the NYT: In Private, Republicans Admit They Acquitted Trump Out of Fear.

+ “So what are we left with? Mitt Romney, alone with his principles, and Trump, angry, vengeful, and unconstrained by any constitutional threat. Until the voters render their verdict, in November, Trump will be the President he has always wanted to be: inescapable, all-powerful, and completely unaccountable.” Susan B. Glasser in The New Yorker: The Wrenching Truth About Mitt Romney’s Vote Is That It Doesn’t Matter.

+ My take is that the truth about Mitt Romney’s vote is less wrenching. These political times feel hopelessly craven, lacking in decency and decorum, and otherwise terrible. So, now especially, we should be deeply appreciative when someone stands up and does the right thing for a reason that has largely fallen by the wayside due to neglect and outright contempt. Mitt Romney did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. From me: Mitt Won’t Bend the (Rom)knee: In praise of a bold decision at a critical moment.