it will allow people at least the opportunity to see testimony for themselves. I like that.

But if holding the president to account is the thinking, that's futile, barring a miraculous turn of repub attitudes in the senate. Clinton was not held to account for anything. And he of course was a lame duck at the time of his impeachment and was not re-elected. His impeachment is at most a footnote on his legacy. Impeachment isn't even a legal accusation. It's a political one.

All this is IMO is political theater. It may assist in defeating Trump next year, in which case, I'm a happy guy. But if it doesn't, and he's re-elected, then this whole thing will have been the opposite of holding Trump to account. It will have exonerated him fully. Sure, the reasons could be muddled, maybe people just won't be able to pull the trigger for an uber-progressive, or maybe a critical sliver of the electorate will be too anti-gay, depending on who the the nominee is. But it doesn't matter - for all who consider Trump and Trumpistan repugnant and an affront to American Constitutional values, an impeached, acquitted, and re-elected Trump is the opposite of holding Trump to account, and our worst possible scenario.

This talk of holding Trump to account - nobody hopes it works out that way more than I do, but that is far from the true political nature of the impeachment process.