I do think you are right re: no guts to challenge.
Hastings was impeached as a Judge.
wiki says he ultimately lost:
The Supreme Court, however, ruled in Nixon v. United States that the federal courts have no jurisdiction over Senate impeachment matters, so Sporkin’s ruling was vacated and Hastings’s conviction and removal were upheld.
The bleeping RATs got us(ok..me) talking about impeach over everything else.
I knew he was impeached as a federal judge.
I thought that was implicit in my previous posts.
The sad thing is, the feds couldn’t deliver a guilty verdict ton him. So as revenge back to “da man” he got elected to the House. An office he shouldn’t have been allowed to take, but he played “The Card” and so there he is!