The most depressing aspect of this latest e-mail pseudo-scandal isn't the effect it could have on election night, but on what could come next.
Hillary Clinton, drawing on her years of senatorial experience, hopes to forge a bipartisan consensus on immigration, the environment, health care and maybe even trade, if she wins the presidency Nov. 8.
More likely, the e-mail imbroglio will ensure a toxic Congress, in which the Senate and House exist only to obstruct, proving the dark thesis that America truly has become ungovernable.
Read more: As the U.S. election draws to a close, both sides pulling out all the stops
Read more: A very long year: Canadian expats reflect on an ugly election and what come next
Read more: What to watch for as the U.S. election grinds to an end (subscribers)
It is hard to find even smoke, let alone fire, in the latest revelations that the FBI is investigating an e-mail chain that in some undefined, tangential way might or might not have something to do with Ms. Clinton's private server.
But because Ms. Clinton and Donald Trump are the two most unpopular candidates ever to seek the presidency, whichever one is in the news is losing. So the latest FBI non-revelations have further narrowed polls that were already narrowing.
Nonetheless, Ms. Clinton is still likely to win on Nov. 8. Her organizational advantage, if nothing else, should help her prevail in the key battleground states.
But this loss of momentum in the final days of the election is likely to hurt the Democrats in down-ballot races for the Senate and House. In which case we could be faced with, once again, a Democrat in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress.
What would that mean going forward? Consider: Arizona Senator John McCain, a former Republican presidential nominee who is considered a voice of reason within the GOP, recently said that a Republican Senate might simply refuse to confirm any justices to the Supreme Court.
"I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up," he declared.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who lost to Mr. Trump in the race for the nomination, backed him up. "There is certainly long historical precedent for a Supreme Court with fewer justices," he told reporters this week. "That's a debate that we are going to have."
Actually, there is little precedent at all for reducing the size of the court, but historical accuracy has been one of many casualties of this electoral war.
While a Republican-dominated Senate could choose to undermine the Supreme Court, a Republican-dominated House could go to work on bringing Ms. Clinton down.
"There will be a move to impeach her the moment her hand comes down from that Bible," conservative commentator Jeffrey Lord predicted on CNN last week. "This is going to go on and on and on and on."
While only the Attorney General can appoint a special prosecutor, the House of Representatives, either through existing or specially created committees, could conduct any number of investigations into the conduct of a President Clinton, undermining the legitimacy of her presidency. The House is responsible for voting on whether to impeach a president, while the Senate votes on whether to convict.
In an ideal world, both sides would emerge from this brutal contest chastised. Determined to prove that the political system was not as dysfunctional as it appears, Ms. Clinton and the Republicans would work out compromises on increasing the intake of legal immigrants while deterring illegal migrants and providing a path to citizenship for those already living and working in the United States.
They would seek common ground on implementing Barack Obama's promise to combat global warming. They would seek to strengthen rather than weaken Obamacare and perhaps even find a path to approving the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
But in the real world that is likely to emerge, Congress may not even get a budget passed. Instead, senators and representatives will focus on whether to force a shutdown of government or default on the debt.
Those will be on the good days. On the bad days, the talk will be about whether to impeach the president. Perhaps we should be taking a closer look at the fitness for office of vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine.
John Ibbitson