Article snippet: WASHINGTON — In the halls of Congress, this is not the most wonderful time of the year. Democrats and Republicans were in a bitter mood Wednesday as the impeachment inquiry into President Trump entered a new phase with the first Judiciary Committee hearing. Both sides know they’re not going to get what they want during this holiday season, and they hardly relish the prospect of working straight through to an expected impeachment vote in the days before Christmas. Democrats understand that if they impeach Trump over the Ukraine controversy, the Senate almost certainly won’t vote to remove him from office. The Republicans just want the whole thing to go away, but House Democrats indicated Wednesday they were as committed as ever to pushing forward with impeachment. The atmosphere was summed up succinctly by one of the four constitutional scholars who testified Wednesday. “We are living in the very period described by Alexander Hamilton, a period of agitated passions,” said Jonathan Turley of George Washington University. “I get it, you’re mad. The president’s mad. My Republican friends are mad. My Democratic friends are mad. My wife is mad. My kids are mad. Even my dog seems mad.” Turley, who was invited by Republicans, testified before the committee alongside three other professors called by Democrats. The four offered a history lesson in impeachment and their own analyses of whether Trump’s actions surrounding his July phone call with the Ukrainian president amo... Link to the full article to read more