“The Republican Senate leadership cut the legs out from under the House the last time around - it did not want to give Gore the advantage of campaigning while sitting in the Oval Office.”
If true, then that strategy worked for the party, if not for the moral rectitude of the country. Bush failed to gain the popular vote and just barely won the electoral college.
I suspect that the public polling was against impeachment in the states where GOP-e senators were voting against conviction as the country was in the middle of the dot-com market bubble and the “don’t wreak the party” crowd was yelling loudly.
Given the close results of that election, it certainly appears so.
Of course, the clarity of hindsight might cause some to question whether four years of Gore would have been preferable to four years of Hillary.
My point is for those who seek impeachment/conviction or perhaps any other means of stopping or even just delaying the juggernaut, Barr's involvement would seem to offer the best opportunity.