“Listen, you’re not going to get any kind of dissent from me. It’s not easy herding a bunch of a cats, so he’s got a difficult task here in terms of organizing everybody,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has criticized McConnell’s tactics in the past but backed him on the impeachment battle. Johnson even argued for providing less debate time during the trial's opening phases, yet he still sided with McConnell.

Even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who spent years in the Senate as a conservative agitator, praised the move to keep the caucus together by making a minor compromise.

"We saw Democrats lighting their hair on fire: 'This is an outrageous effort. A cover-up, to have 24 hours of arguments over two days,'" Cruz said. "Senate Republicans did something wise and right which was to say: 'OK we'll make a concession.'"

In the organizing resolution he released on Monday night, McConnell had called for allowing only two days for House managers to present their case against the president, raising the specter of exhausted senators sitting in the chamber until well after midnight. Democrats also charged McConnell with trying to bury the trial in the dead of night, long past when most Americans would have stopped watching.

But a few key Republican senators objected, and McConnell agreed to allow three days — 24 hours in floor time total — for both the House managers and Trump’s defense team to present their opening arguments. The organizing resolution was also revised Tuesday so that the House’s evidence is allowed to be used in the Senate trial, although Trump’s lawyers will still be able to challenge what’s allowed under consideration by senators.

These were concessions, but only the slightest of ones — and the shift gave McConnell further license to ignore Senate Democrats’ broader complaints. With all 52 of his GOP senators united behind him, McConnell was able to defeat a series of Democratic amendments calling for more documents from the White House and other federal agencies caught up in the Ukraine scandal.

On the biggest issue — whether to call additional witnesses now, including former national security advisor John Bolton and others — McConnell refused to yield. At the Kentucky Republican's urging, the Senate postponed a decision on that question until after the opening arguments, despite vehement objections from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

It’s McConnell 101. The Senate majority leader plays by the rules, but he uses them as a weapon to help his cause as much as a restriction on what he can do. The only limits are based on what his members will agree to. And it’s nothing new to his adversaries.

“One thing about McConnell is he’s ruthless at what he wants. He’s ruthless,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). “He changes the rules with 51 votes to get what he wants. He changes the rules because he can.”

“The total disinterest in talking to Schumer for months was a clear indication he was going to railroad us,” noted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “It’s perfectly consistent with the way he’s managed the Senate up until today. If anybody expected anything different from the way he was going to approach impeachment, shame on them.”

McConnell puts both Republicans and Democrats on the spot by applying maximum pressure. There’s no place for anyone to hide in a McConnell-run Senate.