unnerving subplot of the impeachment drama is the fact that the president and his personal lawyer rudy giuliani are continuing to do the thing that the president is being impeached for, part of the thing. just out in the open. in fact, today in this just fascinating and excellent new yorker piece about one of the ex-prosecutors of the center of the ukraine story, rudy giuliani admits a key part of the plot. he says he spearheaded getting rid of a former ambassador of ukraine marie yovanovitch because she stood in the way of his scheme. i believe i needed yovanovitch out of the way. she was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody. that scheme is partly what rudy giuliani's two associates are indicted for. it's partly what president trump's impeachment is about. this civil servant, marie yovanovitch, had to be removed so they could undergo their corrupt extortion plot holding back nearly $400 million in aid to ukraine until it announced