From where I sit: The CJ's 'peanut butter defense'

The "peanut butter defense" involves spreading the blame, and is usually, by its nature, non-sequitur , i.e., illogical. For instance, it usually sounds like this: "If I am to blame, he also should be blamed because....". The latest version I've heard of that defense is typically non-sequitur but it also comes with a particular odious ad hominem flavor (I won't dignify it by repeating it here).  Mudslinging is commonplace with politicians, not Chief Justices. The Court he leads is considered the "weakest branch," holding neither the power of the purse nor the might of the sword but armed only with the wisdom of its words and the moral sway of its conscience. For this reason, a justice is required to be of "proven competence, integrity, probity and independence." Probity, that quality of having strong moral principles, honesty and decency, is fundamentally incompatible with slinging mud; on the other hand, probity is fundamentally compatible with slinging truth--even if, as it often does, the truth hurts. At the start of the impeachment trial, the Chief Justice prematurely and mistakenly asserted that it was an attack on the institution of the Court itself. Because his brethren on the Court wisely kept their collective peace despite his insistence on displaying his pompadoured presence on tarpaulins and his propensity for lachrymose displays on a government-owned balcony, the Court itself was insulated from a largely political exercise. By his own act of filing the self-centered petition to stop the impeachment trial, the Chief Justice has himself dragged the Court through the exercise and placed it in the unwelcome position of having to sit in judgment on an exercise it has no role in--yet. By his own words attacking the President, the Chief Justice has flung mud--an act totally unbecoming of the dignity inherent in the high office he holds and refuses to part with. If there was ever more reason to continue trying the respondent to show unfitness for the office he holds, he has, ironically, now given that reason. By his own words. By his own acts. On the record.