WASHINGTON — On the cusp of House impeachment, ye olde Capitol may quake on the cornerstone George Washington laid in 1800.

Inside, scores of hungry reporters run to catch sleepless members of Congress, finding politicians blessed with iron stamina. We try to stay cool under the chandeliers, operating on coffee and a shared sense that here and now is history.

The days are dark, short and rainy, leading to the moment when President Donald Trump will be impeached by the Democratic House of Representatives. Pressuring Ukraine, a foreign power, to publicly investigate a 2020 opponent, Joe Biden, in exchange for $400 million in military aid, led him to this pass.

Abuse of power and obstructing Congress are grave constitutional violations. An American tragedy in a short presidency.

Yet Trump treats the situation as would a surly bad boy sent to the principal's office. The ready-to-rumble Trump never learned simple words like "shame" or "sorry" when he was that brazen boy.

At 73, the president has the peculiar talent to turn this rare rebuke around, into tragedy of the absurd — once outside the House. The affair is far from over.

For now, the authority Trump despises is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat. Despite early doubters, she held her raucous caucus tight as soldiers all year, a work of political art.

Those doubters are now believers. Centrist Democrats from swing districts are sticking with the team, one by one. Reps. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Ben McAdams, D-Utah, are voting their consciences ahead of their jobs.

John F. Kennedy authored a book on such stands, "Profiles in Courage."

Daniel Goldman and Norm Eisen, Democratic lawyers in the impeachment hearings, strode out of the speaker's office on the second floor, discussing closing strategy like field lieutenants.

"Just having fun," Eisen said to my question.

But make no mistake; this is the ugliest partisan warfare of the century. House Republicans are acting out in the worst way. Profiles in courage, there are none.

Not one will cross over to impeach after lustily defending Trump in remarkably fact-free diatribes in House hearings. Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, violated every rule in the lost House etiquette book.

But red-faced Doug Collins, R-Ga., made it a trifecta. He's a Trump pet, and it's clear why. The Southerner seldom stops shouting.

Trump's rude tongue and tweets have made presidential history. Well, almost. Andrew Johnson, impeached in 1868, was known as a misanthrope. One article of impeachment considered against the Tennessee tailor was making speeches "with a loud voice, certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues" with the intent to disgrace Congress.

How familiar.

Meanwhile, the formidable speaker looked fresh and ready for the looming vote, wearing a red flower pin.

Once Trump is impeached, Pelosi, the nation's most powerful Democrat, delivers the matter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for a chamber trial early next year.

Or, McConnell said today, "(It) will be dumped on us over here in the Senate." Grumbling, he told reporters today, "I'm not an impartial juror."

Trump is counting on all 53 Republican senators to blatantly break the oath of impartiality, like McConnell, so he can escape conviction and removal. It takes two-thirds, or 67 senators, to get rid of a president.

The House teems with big-city diversity, while the slow Senate is dominated by small states, with a decided Southern vibe. The places are like the sun and the moon.

As Abraham Lincoln put it before the Civil War, we live in a "House divided" in the Capitol.

Look for a few profiles in courage among the Senate Republicans. Five, maybe, willing to pay a price in presidential wrath and possibly lose a seat.

Here's another view: Every single senator will be on trial, in a sense. We'll see if the exalted "upper chamber" is equal to the monumental duty of expelling a man who wielded the power of the state for his own gain in an election.

Among the press throng, holiday cheer isn't here.

"We'll have to do our Christmas shopping in the Senate gift shop," Associated Press photographer J. Scott Applewhite said. "How bleak is that?"

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit the website creators.com