For President Trump, it was vindication, pure and simple. He tweeted about it as “our country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax.” Trump’s Democratic Party foes, he said, “have done everything possible to destroy us, and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the entire thing a “colossal political mistake” on the part of Democrats.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed that Senate Republicans had “normalized lawlessness” by their action, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said there will always be “a giant asterisk” in the history books associated with the process and the vote. “He was acquitted without facts. He was acquitted without a fair trial. And it means his acquittal is virtually valueless.” 

Last Wednesday’s denouement came as a...