Pirate's Cove

Richard Cohen is one of the Washington Post’s deep bench of uber-liberals. He’s managed to annoy everyone, even causing Salon to write “the inexplicably still-employed centrist hack that the neoconservative editorial board of the Washington Post masquerades as a liberal” (which says more about how far left Salon is), while Media Matters has had numerous tizzy’s, including this one. Regardless, he’s an uber-leftist, and, let’s face it, someone at the Washington Post had to have approved this

How to remove Trump from office

Donald Trump is a one-man basket of deplorables. He is a braggart and a liar. He is a bully and a demagogue. He is an ignoramus and a deadbeat, a chiseler and either a sincere racist or an insincere one, and his love for himself is matched only by my loathing of him. He is about to be president of the United States. A constitutional coup may be in the offing.

A constitutional coup? After paragraph after paragraph whining about Trump, and then noting that impeachment would be really difficult, we read

There is, however, another way. Under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the vice president, together with a “majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” can remove the president for being “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” No doubt the mere mention of incapacitation would summon a horde of lawyers to Washington to contest it or the meaning of every term.

But it is plain that the 25th Amendment does give a role to Cabinet members that is not generally considered when they are up for confirmation. This time, however, they should all be asked whether they are aware of the 25th Amendment and, if need be, whether they would be willing to implement it. Some would say that they do not respond to hypotheticals, but a willingness to abide by the Constitution is not a hypothetical. It is, instead, a grave duty.

Funny, that grave duty wasn’t apparent when Obama was in office. There’s no lack of lists of just how he violated the Constitution.

But, hey, Cohen is “just wondering”, musing

Is this going to happen? Probably not. We’ll just muddle through a Trump presidency, as we have some others. But the nature and malevolence of Donald Trump have to be borne in mind. He has shown little regard for the Constitution, as exemplified by statements saying that by definition anything a president does is legal, and he is prone to vulgar statements and tactics. Recall that he was once the most prominent birther, evidence of either racism or a chilling willingness to pander to it. Recall also, as Meryl Streep did at the Golden Globes, that Trump mocked Serge Kovaleski, a physically disabled New York Times reporter, and then denied that he had done anything of the sort. Here was the bully in full repugnance. Here was the liar in full contempt for the truth.

Don’t think this is a one-off. Liberals have been bandying this meme around for quite some time. The first mention I can find is loony liberal Ben Brenkert at The Hill. It’s been pushed by the nutty Daily Kos. And wacky Keith Olbermann. The meme really ratcheted up at the end of November. There’s at least one petition (which didn’t get close). For the most part, this yammering stayed on the edges of Liberaldom after The Hill screed. Now it’s moved into the mainstream, thanks to the always loony Washington Post opinion pages.

You know what would have stopped Trump, Democrats? Not nominating someone as bad as Hillary. Those of us on the right dealt with Obama for 8 years. You can cope with Trump.

Crossed at Right Wing News.