The GOP is running out of time
The party of Frankenstein must dispatch its own monster
The Republican leadership may have waited too long to do the right thing.
I had hoped that GOP bigshots would have tried to convince that stubborn traitor in the Oval Office to hit the road by the end of the weekend. The only convincer they had at their disposal was that he needs to leave so Mike Pence can pardon him, because Donald Trump, unlike Dick Nixon, has no shame or generosity.
He needed to be told, again, that a self-pardon won’t work, and that the anger it would generate would ensure that the book gets thrown right at his teeth.
So the impeachment engine will start Monday, and will move fast. Conviction may result just before the end of the term, or more likely, in the first month of Joe Biden’s. Or it may fail, which would be tragic for almost everyone but Trump.
As the impeachment process hangs over his head, the GOP still has a chance to try and force his resignation. It will take guts. His supporters among the Nazis, Proud Boys and other assorted snakes and rats may take literal potshots at them.
But this is not a time for cowards, but for the bold. If moderate Republican voters are to ever try to ignore people like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and feel free to vote in national elections for Adam Kinzinger and Mitt Romney and other decent survivors of their broken organization, the leaders of the GOP need to try. They must be salient in the removal of the biggest mistake they ever made, and then begin the hard work of amends.
They need to reform their party. That can never happen unless they start by protecting the country they profess to love by ridding it of Trump as soon as possible.
It is problematic that it can be done by a few of their number joining Democrats in voting for impeachment. Trump and the ugliest part of his base will view that as his victimhood, and it may strengthen their cause.
Trump should leave on his feet, encouraged by his party, begging him to consider his freedom and legacy.
The GOP should approach both Trump and their constituency on their knees. For years, they have demeaned nearly every political process within reach. The buzzards have come home to roost.
And they nurtured a monster. No one knows what the monster might do while it still wields power.
The Republican Party is deservedly in deep trouble. The conservative movement itself is in peril. When many Republicans continued to fight against a legitimate electoral result Wednesday night, they were pledging their allegiance to the mob that had routed them earlier in the day.
They must try to get Trump to leave. If they fail, they must lead in his Constitutional ouster.
If the 25th Amendment is not invoked, or if the bulk of Republican members of Congress are seen voting against impeachment and conviction (or standing by in craven abstention), the lights of their ancient party will start winking out.
Republicans will emerge from their hallowed offices into a dark night of their own creation.
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