One hates to think that the reason Nancy Pelosi delayed delivery of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate for trial was that her order for commemorative pens hadn’t come in yet. What’s a somber occasion like an impeachment without a commemorative pen? Don’t forget to pose for pictures with a smiling Pelosi on the way to the after party, And for a mere $19.99 donation to the DNC you can get a framed copy of the gibberish convicted Lev Parnas scribbled on a hotel notepad, part of the “additional evidence” in the smoke-and-mirrors drama Democrats hope to make into a mini-series.

Lev Parnas is the latest in a series of lying felons used by Democrats to slime President Trump in vain and follows in the proud tradition of Michael Cohen and Michael Avenatti. Each time one of these clowns is introduced, we are told that this is Trump’s swan song, that the walls are closing in. Parnas is a lawbreaker like Cohen and Avenatti who hopes to get a better deal in exchange for more lies.

The Democrats want to call him as a witness in the Senate even though they could have and didn’t in the House. Maybe they already had too many hearsay witnesses with no direct knowledge of the Ukraine phone call to use one that could have testified in his orange jumpsuit.

Pelosi was “sad” at the signing, we are told, as she and a grinning-from-ear-to-ear Rep. Carolyn Maloney, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair, held up their celebratory pens in this somber photo-op. Even Rep. Maxine Waters, who didn’t seem to be mourning for our democracy, got a pen. 45 has been impeached and will be forever impeached, according to Pelosi.

The Articles of Impeachment could have been written and signed in crayon, since they were written by people dumber than a fifth grader, or perhaps an etch-a-sketch, since they constantly are changing and may change yet again. The overwhelming and iron-clad case against Trump requires more witnesses, witnesses that weren’t called when the House had the chance. Pelosi could have contested things like executive privilege in court early on but were told we had no time for courts, just as we had no time for things like due process and the right to confront one’s accuser.

While the Democrats play checkers, Trump plays three-dimensional chess, inking two major trade job-creating trade deals as his possible Democratic opponents like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren may have to miss the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary while locked up as jurors in a Senate trial that is a total waste of time.

The American people can see the contrast in what the two parties offer America. The Republicans offer trade and jobs. The Democrats offer repeal of the Industrial Revolution after disenfranchising 63 million voters in a bitter coup overthrowing a duly elected President of the United States.

The Democrats hoped that at the very least they could damage Trump badly enough to make Americans forget who gave them record employment numbers, rising wages and 401-Ks and pension plans fattened by a Dow soaring past 29,000 and no end in sight. But they failed. Not only is Donald Trump never going to be impeached by the Senate, in the process of trying, they have turned off independent and swing state voters convinced that Trump was too rash and erratic to be trusted.

Democrats have often mocked Trump rallies as carnival shows filled with actors from central casting and others literally paid to be there. Democrats in 2016 reassured themselves that these were just bitter clingers out for a good time. They weren’t going to actually turn out to vote. Yet they did, in numbers so great that Hillary Clinton had to cancel the fireworks show.

The makeup of the audience at Trump rallies has been changing but in a way that should be frightening to Democrats. Rather than just diehard Trump supporters we see a growing number of independents attending, many picking up their Maga hats on the way in:

Several days ago, Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale posted statistics from last week’s rally held in Toledo, OH, which showed that 43% of attendees identified as either Democratic or Independent…. But the same statistic from Trump’s Tuesday night rally in Wisconsin can only be described as staggering. 57.8% of registrants identified as either Democratic or Independent.

These numbers are impressive and significant. The nonstop barrage of impeachment slander, lies, and innuendo by Democrats is clearly not working. It is turning off independents, and even many Democrats, who are shunning Bernie and Warren rallies and don’t much appreciate, as the election nears, which one of the two lied about the possibility of a woman becoming President.

Now that the march of the penguins has brought the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, the only thing the Republicans should sign is a motion to dismiss. Failing that, witnesses must include the whistleblower and his coach, Rep. Adam Schiff, for any trial in which the accused cannot confront his accuser is invalid.

Witnesses should also include both Joe and Hunter Biden. After all, if Trump is going to be on trial for allegedly trying to dig up dirt on them, wouldn’t it be nice to show there actually was dirt to dig up?

This is going nowhere, but only after a trip through the muck of the swamp. Trump my be forever impeached, Nancy, but when the dust settles he will still be your President.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.