The other faction leaders have long had uttercontempt for everything Mr Berlusconi stands for, and this verdict will only serve to entrench their views, our correspondent adds.
People might have hoped for better from the Senate, but now we know that was a mistake, because a majority of its members have voted in a way that shows an uttercontempt for the public.
Griffith pulled it off seamlessly: As you watch him, you understand how the smiling, aw-shucks, I'm-just-a-country-boy Lonesome Rhodes could cynically use the then-new medium of national television to become as powerful as the president, while privately holding his viewers in uttercontempt.