The Least Bad Option
The most remarkable part of the impeachment inquiry hasn’t been learning about the president. It’s been watching the Republican position regress over 80 days to where the president was in the first hour. The president knew all along what others didn’t.
100 days ago – Congress receives the whistleblower report. Two weeks later – the president releases the call summary. Within minutes – the president takes a position that hasn’t changed since: perfect call / no quid pro quo / nothing wrong.
Knowing how a reasonable person seized with all of the facts would see what he did, the president needed a way to fight back. Out of all the bad ways to do so he reflexively chose the least bad option: call it perfect. Republicans were left to roam in the wilderness.
Like an advancing army, facts came forward in overwhelming fashion. One Republican position after another gave way as one defense after another failed the reasonable person test. Republicans were caught in hand-to-hand combat while the president was holed up in the fort.
Because not a single Republican chose to desert the president and fight for the truth, there was no place to go but back – and they did, one by one by one. The change was complete: the president did nothing wrong.
Contrast that position with the early days and it is indeed remarkable. The best argument for impeachment has been staring everyone in the face since the president released the call summary. It was the second he called it perfect.
