This is not about impeachment. They know that's impossible. It's about using their political positions and influence to manipulate the 2020 presidential and congressional elections. They are no better than any hackers (or biased people claiming to be "journalists") who have attempted to manipulate public opinion in 2016 (or any other time.)
This is not a constitutionally acceptable action of the con-gress.
The states' legislatures and governors who support fair elections should act to clean up the swamp unless they have no intent to represent their constituents.

The 'looney liberals' have poor old Joe who will be making his 4th attempt. What has happened to Beto? That guy with the crazy name 'Buttrieg?' seems to be stiring up some interest, but his constituency is rather limited. Then there is good old Bernie. Remember, his campaign worker said he isn't a 'Socialist'...he is a 'Democrat Socialist'. Whatever the _ that is! How about Elizabeth Warren? Someone ought to inform her that college loan repayment thingy isn't going to work. The kids will realize they are paying their own loans through taxes unless they have really smart IRS CPA's. And, what about our kids who have paid off their loans? Are they going to be repaid? And these reparations to slavery? I would like to inject here that women were more discriminated against and for a longer time, than were slaves. Women got burned at the stake! In the 60's , I worked for a Fortune 500 company, and their attitude was, 'if you pay a woman $10K, replace her with a man!'

They know they would lose and probably open themselves up to having done worse things

All this mudslinging and we see what happens. It gets on everyone!

My city's council in its 100 year history, didn't have an 'Ethics Ordinance". I wrote one. Someone asked why and one of my clever friends said, 'She's the only one who can spell 'Ethics'! There should be an 'Ethics Ordinance' for political aspires.

Political dirty tricks have been around in American politics since Adams and Jefferson went at it before we were a nation. Some tricks have been funny, some sad. Sometimes they outlive their intent to win a campaign. This last one was a whopper. The political losses on the left are yet to be counted and they may be deep.

I think the dilemma for the Democrats is more dire than just looking impotent and incompetent by chasing for impeachment. I know bureaucrats all too well, and until the Mueller report fired a big blank, many were slow rolling any investigation of "spygate" or reopening the Hillary email debacle, out of even the slightest possibility the Democrats might come out on top. Career survival is the uppermost thing these swamp critters pursue. Now that Barr is in charge, it's beginning to look like the winning side just might be the President, which makes it safe to risk crawling into the sunlight and pointing fingers.

The Democrats have to keep firing blanks, just to make noise and hopefully keep the fickle bureaucrats skittish from all the noise. If they settle down to legislation, they fear the emboldened swamp crawlers who know where the bodies are buried will turn on them with a vengeance, to look like heroes. Catch 22 at its finest.

The dems backing off on pushing for impeachment only has to make more people wonder why. Some dems might now actually have to think for themselves and wonder why. I see two reasons, one is the republicans might actually get off their duffs and maybe riot or cause mass demonstrations for the world to see. Remember dems think that sort of thing works. The other is they have never even presented any facts for impeachment, not any specific charges other than pure rhetoric and bs. And why do they think that throwing their own under the bus is going to benefit their position in any way? The Mueller Report was only an Obama Hope and Change dream, that eventually will change into a nightmare. We need full investigations on all charges, both on the accused and on the accuser(s).

I think the more seasoned Democrats understand how politically untenable impeachment is without hard evidence. And they know that there will be a lot of the centrist Democrats - especially those who just won seats in normally Republican areas - will be ousted in 2020, relegating the Democratic Party back to the minority party in the House. Its surprisingly thoughtful for them, given the astonishingly vapid responses they commonly make on policy positions.