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(CNN) Democrats hoping to dislodge President Donald Trump from the White House before January 20, 2025 have only one more option -- the ballot box -- and the voting begins Monday in Iowa.

In the past week, it became clearer than ever that impeachment would not result in Trump's removal by the US Senate. After a motion to call witnesses was defeated Friday afternoon, Republicans are on track to conclude the trial -- despite new reporting by The New York Times that a forthcoming book by former national security adviser John Bolton backs up the allegations that Trump improperly withheld US aid to Ukraine.

The central question for the GOP,wrote, was: "Even if Bolton's account is fully accurate, does this episode, taken in its entirety, warrant the removal of a duly elected president?" Now, get ready for "a series of Trump campaign exoneration rallies as he travels the country hammering Democrats for their overreach ," Jennings said.

Trump's defense in the Senate was double-barreled: The lawyers denied that he conditioned military aid for Ukraine on an announcement of an investigation of the Bidens, and also contended that even if he did it, it wasn't an impeachable offense. To make the case,wrote, "Trump wanted a spectacle -- a vaudeville show of characters and personalities -- and from Jay Sekulow's theatrics to Alan Dershowitz's law school lecture, he got it.

noted that even though the President's plan to press the Ukrainians for an investigation announcement was foiled by a whistleblower's complaint "the President and his Republican colleagues found an alternative venue to smear Biden -- the floor of the United States Senate." One of Trump's lawyers, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, "aired all the charges against Biden without providing ample evidence to support any of them. She, and the rest of White House counsel, misled the Senate and the American people on the basic facts of the case ."

Aaron Rupar wrote," Vox'swrote," Shamelessness is a feature of Trumpism, not a bug. And while Pam Bondi's performance may seem laughable to most, it's been sufficient for Senate Republicans."

The Dershowitz doctrine

Another Trump lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, helped make Senate Republicans feel better about their effort to exonerate the President with an argument Democrats and many legal scholars labeled ridiculous: "If a President did something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest," he told Senate jurors, "that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."

Paul Begala observed, "I did not go to Harvard Law, but I did go to the University of Texas School of Law, where I studied criminal law and constitutional law, but observed, "I did not go to Harvard Law, but I did go to the University of Texas School of Law, where I studied criminal law and constitutional law, but never dreamed a legendary legal mind would set them both ablaze on the Senate floor . The Dershowitz Doctrine would make presidents immune from every criminal act, so long as they could plausibly claim they did it to boost their re-election effort."

John Avlon labeled it the "King Trump defense" and labeled it the "King Trump defense" and "an insult to our Constitution and separation of powers."

Aisha Moodie-Mills. "The impeachment process has provided Democrats The Trump defense arguments won't convince voters, wrote. "The impeachment process has provided Democrats with a treasure trove of damning evidence to fuel the campaign against him and convince voters that he should be evicted from the White House in the November election."

Other takes on impeachment:

Paul Callan: Democrats' impeachment fantasy crashes

Michael Zeldin: Trial shows Trump is guilty as charged

Kobe Bryant

A week ago, the world was stunned to learn of the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, in a helicopter crash that took the lives of his 13-year old daughter Gianna Bryant and seven other people.

"It makes no sense," wrote Jeff Pearlman. "It just doesn't compute, in the way JFK's death didn't compute for my parents; in the way Len Bias' death didn't compute for me at age 14."

As a young athlete, Bryant emerged as a complex character, Pearlman noted: "he possessed something few had witnessed before. Namely, a complete, total lack of self-doubt. " His "five NBA titles and 18 All-Star nods" would fully justify that confidence.

"He was famously accused of raping a Colorado hotel clerk in 2003, and the ensuing legal drama often felt O.J. Simpson-esque in scale and magnitude," Pearlman wrote. "For many, it seemed to signify the end of Kobe Bryant as a spokesperson, as a hero, as a star. Even after the case was settled out of court. How would anyone ever cheer for Kobe Bryant again? How would anyone believe in him?"

Edward Beck observed that Bryant's Catholic faith and fulsome apology were instrumental: "He was loved and forgiven by so many because they perceived Yet he started to put his life back together, centering it around family. Fatherobserved that Bryant's Catholic faith and fulsome apology were instrumental: "He was loved and forgiven by so many because they perceived an indefatigable man who accepted responsibility for his shortcomings.

"He wasn't simply an NBA legend, he was a cultural icon," Granderson wrote. "Bryant's death leaves a unique hole in our hearts."

It could take a year for investigators to pin down the cause of the crash. The pilot was experienced and the helicopter was a sophisticated craft, wrote retired airline pilot Les Abend. "Like all aviation accidents, this is an awful tragedy ."

On to Iowa

In what Jill Filipovic saw as a revealing remark, US Senator Joni Ernst drew a direct line from the impeachment trial's discussion of the Bidens to her home state of Iowa, where the Democratic primary voting begins Monday. "I'm really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus goers," Ernst said. "Will they be supporting VP Biden at this point?"

Iowa has traditionally played an outsized role in determining the front runners in the Democratic presidential primaries. But this year may be different, suggested Ian Sams, who was national press secretary on Sen. Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. A strong victory in Iowa can shape the narrative of a candidate's surging campaign, but new caucus rules providing for releasing three sets of results could confuse the picture. The caucus is already overshadowed by the impeachment drama and could be largely eclipsed by the spectacle of Trump's State of the Union speech Tuesday evening.

"Though Iowa's vote is important," Sams wrote, the "unique media environment could dampen its historic effect of crowning a front-runner and make later contests even more influential for how voters perceive the candidates and the race."

(For real-time election information about Iowa and beyond, check out the CNN 2020 Election Center .)

The latest Iowa polls have shown a tight race, as progressive and moderate candidates battle for voters. Bernie Sanders has gained support, Julian Zelizer wrote, because his effort is not just an election campaign but a movement.

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Sanders "has amassed a loyal and devoted cadre of followers who imagine that they are trying to transform the fundamentals of politics, not just win an election....The passion that Sanders commands from his supporters is intense and it has created a solid foundation for his candidacy that prevents the dramatic swings others have experienced ."

Chrissy Houlahan nabbed a seat in Congress two years ago as a Democrat in a swing district of Pennsylvania, a state Donald Trump won in 2016. She's hoping Iowans will back a moderate who favors gradual reform, rather than Medicare for All, and who understands the importance of trade to rural voters. The key, she wrote, is " Rep.nabbed a seat in Congress two years ago as a Democrat in a swing district of Pennsylvania, a state Donald Trump won in 2016. She's hoping Iowans will back a moderate who favors gradual reform, rather than Medicare for All, and who understands the importance of trade to rural voters. The key, she wrote, is " meeting voters where they are on issues like trade and health care , and proposing practical, pragmatic solutions for the American people."

Now it's an emergency

Michael Bociurkiw Last weekend, wrote that it was "baffling" that the World Health Organization hadn't declared the Wuhan coronavirus a "public health emergency of international concern." But as cases continued to spread and airlines restricted travel to China, on Thursday WHO did exactly what Bociurkiw had suggested.

The full picture of the threat presented by the virus is still not known, but in addition to the health risks, it is fueling ugly stereotypes. "Across the internet," wrote Jeff Yang, "we've seen widespread eruptions of racist scapegoating, blaming Chinese for a disease that has so far only killed Chinese."

He added, "At the root of these reactions is something deeply insidious and very familiar. Throughout history, cultures have used ugly slurs on the savagery, backwardness or filthiness of foreigners as a way to rationalize excluding them, ejecting them or eliminating them ; we're seeing this today in the language that Trump and some in his administration often use to talk about Latin American migrants and other communities, framing them as bestial and subhuman, as violent and barbaric, as diseased and unclean, all to rationalize inhumane policies."

Trump's plan for the Middle East

Jared Kushner made the case for the proposal: " In the midst of the impeachment drama, President Trump unveiled a long-gestating plan to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, with the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival retired Lt. Gen. Benjamin Gantz. Trump senior advisermade the case for the proposal: " we have established a clear path to a final peace agreement that meets the core requirements of both the Israeli and Palestinian people."

Aaron David Miller, who helped craft a variety of peace plans over a long career in the US State Department, said the problems with the new plan are manifest. Trump's "deal of the century" , who helped craft a variety of peace plans over a long career in the US State Department, said the problems with the new plan are manifest. Trump's "deal of the century" is more accurately called the "steal of the century," he argued. It "reflects the triumph of presidential arrogance, domestic politics and pro-Israeli bias over any commitment to serious peacemaking, let alone an already fraught two-state solution which the administration seems determined to bury."

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, was scathing in his criticism: "By far the most flagrant part of the plan , secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, was scathing in his criticism: "By far the most flagrant part of the plan is that it ends any possibility for an independent sovereign Palestinian state , instead dividing the territories into ghettos and Bantustans, besieged, suffocated and isolated."

Don't miss:

Tina Smith: The Ukraine scandal comes to Minnesota

John Avlon: The strange world of impeachment rock

AND...

Superbowl star: Jennifer Lopez

At 50, Jennifer Lopez is continuing her remarkable comeback with a headliner role in the Superbowl half-time show. "Her star power is only growing stronger," wrote Holly Thomas.

Lopez's 2019 "got off to a rocky start. Her performance during a Motown tribute at the Grammys last February was widely regarded as being in poor taste, especially given that several big artists snubbed the event for rewarding too few black artists in major categories. It was embarrassing, but she shook it off," Thomas pointed out.

Her 50th birthday tour was a success, along with her starring role in "Hustlers."

"While other actors might balk at the thought of playing an aging stripper with a near-savage hunger for money," Thomas wrote, "Lopez not only seized the opportunity, but suggested the now-legendary pole dance scene which was her character's introduction. She took the role -- and the producer gig -- for free. As she later explained, 'I bank on myself.' It paid off."