The impeachment trial of President Clinton is expected to go behind closed doors today to allow the 100 senators deliberate in private on how they will vote as jurors later this week.
In fact, there is now no doubt that the President will be acquitted of the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice because there will not be the required two-thirds majority of 67 votes. There is speculation on whether there will be a simple majority voting to convict Mr Clinton on the perjury charge even though there are 55 Republican senators.
Interest is also focusing on attempts to have a motion of censure passed against President Clinton as soon as the trial ends. Several drafts of a bi-partisan censure motion are being considered by Democrats who are anxious not to have their votes for acquittal being interpreted as condoning his behaviour arising from his affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky.
But many Republicans are opposed to a censure motion. They fear that the the language would not be strong enough. They are also reluctant to provide Democrats with political "cover" through a censure motion.
Some Republicans have threatened to "filibuster" a censure motion or delay it indefinitely using Senate procedures.
The Republican prosecutors and the White House defence team made their final presentations yesterday. For almost five hours, the senators heard the by now familiar arguments.
Congressman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin for the prosecution urged the Senate not to be "fooled by the President's excuses". "If the President does not suffer the legal and constitutional consequences of his actions, the impact of allowing the President to stand above the law will be felt for generations to come."
Mr Sensenbrenner told the senators that "the truth is still the truth and a lie is still a lie, and the rule of law should apply to everyone". He concluded: "Senators, don't be fooled by the President's excuses and spin control. For the sake of our country and for future generations, please find the President guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice."
The White House chief counsel, Mr Charles Ruff, repeated his arguments that the prosecutors had failed to show that the President committed perjury or obstructed justice. He accused the prosecutors of botching their case and he used clips from the videotaped testimony of Ms Lewinsky to undermine their case.
The efforts by Democrats to open up the senators' final deliberations to the public are likely to fail today when they put down a motion to change the Senate rule on privacy for this stage. Democrats would need the support of at least a dozen Republicans for the motion to succeed and this is now seen as unlikely because the Republican leader, Senator Trent Lott, has indicated that he is opposed to having the deliberations in open session.
Each senator will be allowed up to 15 minutes to explain their votes but the feeling is that if the session is in private they will not all seek maximum speaking time. Senator Lott is now in favour of the record of the senators' deliberations being made available later.
President Clinton was accompanied by two senators on his trip to the funeral of King Hussein. There had been speculation that the trial might have had to be suspended if a large number of senators wanted to attend the funeral.
Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat, Vermont) told reporters on Air Force One that he did not mind missing a day of the trial because he had got so "tired" of it.