David Brooks:

That's another lifetime story for me.

The Senate used to be very different from the House, and — but — and they all had this collegial — you go to the Senate Dining Room and they were always like buddy-buddy. There's a little room off the Senate floor where they — there was bourbon and they could have a drink together.

And, now, these days, I would go in that room and the bourbon levels in the bottle didn't go down. Like, no one was having a drink together. There was no collegiality. There's none of the flattering they used to do to each other.

And so the Senate has become a place to go to get on TV, just like the House, only a little more successful. And Mitt Romney, he came to Congress, a very earnest guy, came to the Senate, had a list of things he wanted to pass. And his staff was like, what? What are you doing? That's not what we do here.

And so I lament a — just think of the kind of Republicans that used to be common, George H.W. Bush, George Romney. That's all gone. And so that's one thing. And then the other thing, we have learned — Romney gave interviews to "The Atlantic" published this week.

And we learned, A, how often — there have been times when Trump has gone in to talk to the Republican Caucus. He's left the room and they all laugh contemptuously at him. And so that level of bad faith is pretty high.

We have also learned, the final thing, is that there are members who were going to vote to convict on impeachment, but were afraid that they or their families might get assassinated, and they knew their vote wouldn't make a difference.

Like, we are way beyond the bounds of normal democratic governance, when that's even on the minds of members of Congress.

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