No constitutional do-over.

As entertaining as it is to count the scandals, in the end, it doesn’t matter.  But what the heck, it makes an interesting start.  Let me do a quick scandal summary.

At the top, we have Trump making millions every few weeks from his various properties, as every corrupt foreign government out there tries to outspend the other at Trump resort properties.  The Donald is talking about his business opening a new hotel during his Presidency.  Apparently, if you’re President, the graft business really is that good.

We have Donald, Junior using Trump’s name to build the properties further while meeting with Russian and Ukrainian operatives.  He swears the meetings never happened, and the ones that did happen were completely official.  They swear they were only talking to Junior in his role as a temporary real estate magnate.  At least one of them are lying.

We have Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor and simultaneous paid agent of the Turkish government, promising now to spill everything he knows about Trump if we just don’t throw him in jail, too.  He’s probably just torqued that he was bribed with tens of thousands of dollars when everyone else got millions and billions.

(Side note: don’t forget that Trump and his campaign were notified about Flynn’s connections well before the election.  Flynn’s lawyers told Trump’s people during the campaign.  The DOJ notified the Trump administration that Flynn was lying so badly he could be blackmailed.  Trump and his administration knew Flynn was dishonest with Pence.  They chose to do nothing.  They only acted when the papers got the story, and Trump fired him the next day.  They cited the lies the DOJ had described in writing to Trump several weeks earlier.)

(Side, side-note: Rep. Nunes cancelled his House Intelligence open hearing when it was obvious that former acting-Attorney General Sally Yates would actually talk about things.  He’d probably hoped she’d obey the Trump administration threats against her.  When things got crazy, the Trump administration denied threatening Ms Yates, despite her holding the letters from the White House Council’s office doing exactly that.)

Where was I?  Right.  We have Paul Manafort, campaign manager and simultaneous paid agent of a disgraced Ukrainian dictatorship.  Manafort denies ever receiving the tens of millions of dollars that were documented in Ukrainian receipts and Russian oligarch’s testimony.  Which is why it looked so suspicious when he was buying tens of millions of dollars in NYC real estate, funneled behind various anonymous front companies and backroom deals that look suspiciously like high-volume money laundering.

We have Rex Tillerson, who, while not quite a paid Russian agent, is a close ally who’s been decorated by Putin, and who stands to make billions of dollars after the US sanctions against Russia are dropped.  As Secretary of State, an agency Putin hates, Tillerson appears to be gutting the agency of professionals and budget.  His latest work has been is to drop human rights issues that interfere with military trade with questionable regimes.

We have Carl Icahn, special advisor and shameless hack, whose only government interest has been to cut a single regulation, an action that — surprise! — would net him hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from a company in which he owns an 82% stake.

We have Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, former Vice Chairman of the Bank of Cyprus.  The Bank of Cyprus has, for decades, been one of the premier banks Russian oligarchs use to launder their money.  While I’ve heard reports that Mr. Ross might be the majority bank shareholder, I don’t have confirmation of that yet.  Kind of redefines the meaning of ‘vice-chairman’, though.

(Side note: Paul Manafort had fifteen accounts at the Bank of Cyprus, drawn against ten different companies.  He appeared to be laundering his money there, but he did it so obviously that even the Bank of Cyprus began asking for more information. How bad do you have to be, when the semi-official Russian oligarch bank pukes at you?  Manafort immediately closed his accounts rather than answer any of their questions.)

(Which wasn’t at all suspicious.)

Against that background, HHS Secretary Tom Price and his healthcare stock manipulation schemes seems almost quaint.

What else?  Jeff Sessions lied under oath at his confirmation hearing about his Russian contacts.  At his confirmation hearing, Steve Mnuchin lied under oath about not robo-signing home foreclosures during the housing crisis.

Honestly, the list is as shocking as it is irrelevant.  It just doesn’t matter.

Suppose, for argument, that Trump really is a traitor who colluded with Vladimir Putin to subvert the 2016 election in return for the US dropping Russian sanctions.  Suppose he let Russian sources pick his inner staff, allowing them to populate his administration with foreign agents. Suppose Tillerson is selling US diplomacy for Exxon profits.

So what would happen next?  Impeachment and conviction?  I’m not especially happy at the idea of President Pence.  Or President Ryan, if Pence gets swept up.  Or President Tillerson, god forbid, if Ryan manages to step in something unlikely.  Look down the Presidential chain of succession; no matter how deep you go, you’re still surrounded by feebes and ninnies.

The US Constitution has no party-level do-over clause.  Even if we found irrefutable evidence the Republican party committed treason to win the election, and that they continue to work with our enemies every day to subvert the US and our allies, even then, there are only two Constitutional remedies: impeachment of individuals — leading to President Pence — or the next election cycle.

Depressing, I know.

So I enjoy watching Trump stumble into the next crisis, get flustered, light his hair on fire for distraction, then attack his friends and enemies equally.  It’s really fun TV.  I’m perfectly happy watching them blowtorch their legislative prospects as they burn down any hint of civility.  Anyone need a match?

We’re stuck with them for at least two years.  There are some smaller elections before then, but 2018 is our first chance to make real changes.  Until that election cycle, though, we’re pretty much stuck with what we’ve got.

So yes, gridlock is at the top on my partisan wish list.