The Republicans’ lead attorney in the Sham Impeachment Hearing is Steve Castor, a longtime congressional investigator.

First impression was that Castor was over his head. He looked a bit hesitant in questioning and had kind of a frumpy look like, you know, he had bought his suit off the rack at JC Penney. I’d never seen it heard of him before, but he seemed vaguely familiar.

Shop on Amazon for EVERYTHING TRUMP

I was a bit worried, but about five minutes later as Castor was getting into the heart of his questioning of Ambassador Bill Taylor and State Department flunky George Kent, I realized that I knew why Castor seemed familiar. His disarmingly casual approach had a well-known precedent, Columbo, the bumbling detective played by Peter Falk for many years. People laughed at Columbo because of his unpressed suits, his rambling questions, and his seeming foolishness.

But the thing about Lt. Columbo is that he had this knack to get people to talk freely, and ultimately to incriminate themselves. Taylor and Kent are not guilty of a crime, just of having a very high opinion of themselves.

The important thing that Castor did was start to bring Hunter Biden and Burisma into the hearing. The way he framed the questions began to establish the defense that President Trump was entirely justified in asking the new president of Ukraine to investigate corruption under previous regimes.

In particular, he got George Kent to acknowledge that Ukraine was a corruption cesspool and that Hunter Biden’s boss at Burisma was a criminal oligarch. Of course, they didn’t admit that Trump was right to go after that corruption, but I think the American people will get it.

Earlier posts：

Click Here to Buy Your PRO TRUMP GEAR

• A front-row seat for Impeachment Wednesday

• Schiff lies: ‘I do not know the identity of the whistleblower.’

• Breaking?!?: Ambassador Taylor bitter because president thought he could set his own foreign policy

• Devin Nunes ‘loaded for bear’ in opening statement

WHO WE ARE

Frank Miele has spent four decades in the news business and now offers conservative commentary to counter the left-wing bias in the national media. If you enjoy reading these daily essays, I hope you will consider purchasing one of my books. They are available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions. My new book — “The Media Matrix: What if everything you know is fake?” — shows that Fake News has been around for years. The “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy tackles the politics of the last two decades: Part 1 is subtitled “Bush’s Global Failure: Half Right.” Part 2 is “Obama’s Fundamental Transformation: Far Left.” Part 3 is “Trump’s American Vision: Just Right.” Also consider subscribing to Heartland Diary on YouTube by clicking here for News Every Conservative Can Use.