Or, perhaps, like so many others, he had been driven temporarily insane by full-frontal exposure to the case against Clinton. The Senators have been letting the managers win one battle at a time, humoring them like children who promise to turn out the light and go to sleep if they can have just one more glass of water. Another reason, of course, is to placate conservative supporters by giving them a longer show of Oval Office sins, especially since these Senators cannot deliver the final act that Clinton haters crave. And the Senators are counting on national amnesia to set in among moderate voters, so they'll remember only that the Senate did not remove Clinton, not that it dragged everyone through a couple of unnecessary weeks. These penultimate votes will serve as keepsakes for the core constituency, the kind of folks who can still tell you who gave away the Panama Canal.
Imminent defeat is liberating.
Say you knew you were going to lose the Super Bowl, but you had to play the game anyway. Some Republican Senators voted for witnesses to make sure the trial passed constitutional muster, on the theory that partisanship in defense of the Constitution is no vice. But many more believe Lewinsky Live is their last best hope of attracting the public's attention and changing its mind. Then there's the frustration factor. When Clinton goes about his business as if impeachment were happening to someone else he inflames otherwise sensible Republicans.