Rootin' 'n Tootin'

(Have you ever seen that many apostrophes in a headline?)

Clinton's impeachment was all wrong and chuckleheaded and was barely an impeachment at all compared to Nixon's, which did the trick, but was still sort of civilized compared to what's going to happen when the impeachment hammer – finally – comes down on Trump's copper head.

If you think Trump is nuts now, wait until the House drafts articles of impeachment. And right now it seems that he is handing them new ammo every day. This deranged dude is actually tweeting and talking his way deeper into an inevitable Trial of Every Century.

Trump will be rootin' 'n tootin' like Yosemite Sam, all bristles and lies and snorts and snuffles and bellows and pissypants moans of manic meltdown. Like Al Jolson said, “You ain't seen nothn' yet!”

And so far he's doing a single as far as a strategy; Rudy Giuliani, Barr, Pompeo, and the rest of the Gang That Can't Speak Straight are only enablers. Trump is making it up as he goes along, dancing across the hot tin roof of pending impeachment with all the grace and subtlety of a ruptured elephant. It is a sight that will be beheld in history with a fascinated, incredible awe. 

When the game is truly afoot, Trump will turn on one and all with  the reckless savagery of a cornered beast. There will be untold collateral damage. Trump will firebomb America like Dresden with an unending barrage of lies and accusations. 

An impeachment trial should lay out every shred of evidence of the villainy and treachery of this reeking shell who claims to be president. The dread dead eye of television will bring it to America, day after day, week after week, month after month, if need be. Television – ironically – is the equalizer. It was with Nixon.

Any Senate trial would necessarily involve testimony from Trump's so-called inner circle. Would they testify? So far, the stonewall that Trump has thrown up has been successful in slowing down the work of the various committees investigating his presidency. Will partisan politics continue to outweigh patriotism? Will Trump's “fuck you” to the Constitution and rule of law continue? Will this strategy lead to other impeachments, like for this inner circle of active accomplices?

The net net, of course, will be one of the great miscarriages of justice in history as Trump is inevitably found innocent by his pet Senate. That's the way it looks now, of course, and Trump will strut and shout his innocence to the rafters. It will be his battle cry into the 2020 election. 

That is where the real trial will take place – at the ballot box.

That's the way it looks now. But it's a long road to November 2020, and as Trump writhes and shrieks along the way, who knows what crimes he will brazenly add to those articulated in the articles of impeachment. In a less tilted political world, and given his recent  insanities, there is even an outside chance that he will de-rail himself so thoroughly that even his Senate disciples will get off the tracks.

Or off a listing, sinking ship. Trump's kind of politics breed no loyalty when political self-preservation is at stake.