"The Senate, having tried Donald John Trump, President of the United States, upon two articles of impeachment exhibited against him by the House of Representatives, and two-thirds of the Senators present not having found him guilty of the charges contained therein, it is therefore ordered and adjudged that the said Donald John Trump be, and he is hereby, acquitted of the charges in said articles. "
-- Chief Justice John Roberts, presiding.

President Donald Trump has been acquitted of the articles brought against him in the impeachment proceedings.

The vote fell on strictly partisan lines, save one GOP vote to convict the president on the abuse of power charge. 52 senators voted not guilty, 48 voted guilty on that charge.

The obstruction of Congress article of impeachment was rejected along partisan lines, with no such exception.

Perhaps more noteworthy than the fulfillment of the fait acompli in the Senate was the solitary vote against Trump among GOP senators: Mitt Romney.

Romney gave an impassioned and, at times, emotional speech on the Senate floor expressing his reasons and personal convictions on the matter. He made his case, too, in a Fox News interview.

George Conway was taken by Romney's remarks. Thoroughly.

Others... less so. A rapidly delivered demonstration of the retribution Romney predicted in his speech and about which Fox's Chris Wallace warned. 

“You realize this is war,” Wallace said. “Donald Trump will never forgive you for this.”

Of that, there is no remaining doubt.

The slow rollout of the Iowa Democratic caucus numbers has hit a teensy bit of a snag.

To review: yesterday the state party released 62 percent of the overall results, saying those were the only numbers they could verify and would be releasing more as they could verify more of the raw data.

As of this email, 86 percent of the vote is in, but not without some, well, hiccups.

The Limbaugh Award

Rush Limbaugh was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the State of the Union on Tuesday night. It didn't go over well among liberals and progressives.

The View unloaded on it. WaPo's Jennifer Rubin even more so. And Mediaite's Tommy Christopher even MORE more so.

State of the Ratings

Across the board, the audience for the State of the Union on Tuesday night was significantly smaller than last year’s, and those of years past. But one network bucked the trend in a big way, and actually went up from 2019.

According to data from Nielsen, Fox News absolutely throttled the competition on Tuesday night.

I Love a Parade

The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs had their victory parade on Wednesday. But before the celebration was even officially underway, there was quite a spectacle.

No one was injured, but there were arrests, after a car chase barreled down the parade route, ending with a PIT maneuver and crash... just yards from the spectators lined up early for the parade.

The scene was like something out of a movie, and stands as a tribute to the excellent work of the police in what could have turned into a terrible moment. But it didn't.

It just became an amazing set of video clips.