MEMO TO INCOMING SPEAKER PELOSI:
Please impeach Mike Pence first! And bluntly say that you’re not impeaching Trump until Pence is gone. Yes, transparently, this plan would allow you to become the first female President of the United States… if it could actually work. But no, this is not about you, Madame Speaker!
I know you’re a busy person but please stay with me, this is good stuff!
If you insist that Pence goes first, Republicans will instantly seize upon the maneuver as a “power grab”, and they’ll call you “an ambitious woman” and worse (but that’s not what it’s about either...) And once Fox News has a slur, the lack the ability to give it up. Madame Speaker, they just can’t quit you.
Now watch the dominoes refuse to fall. First, GOP senators who are quaveringly anxious to get rid of Trump refuse to vote to remove Pence from office, saying that would hand over the keys to the White House to you. Stalemate ensues. Second, Trump sees that the GOP suddenly lacks the ability to drive him from office and so Trump refuses to resign! Remember, this’ll be right after the mid-terms, when Trump will be in “ ’til the last dog dies” mode while the rest of the GOP is finally ready to blame him for their woes. From Trump’s point of view, every day he’s in the White House is a day he’s not in the big house, so he sits tight and frustrated GOP senators and media figures foam at the mouth in their attempts to get him to leave and let them lick their wounds in peace… with Pence as their President.
SO THE GOP CANNOT HAVE PENCE AND PEACE
You block that from happening, so in due course the 2020 elections roll around with the GOP whimpering and bad-mouthing their own sitting president, and you, and twice the usual number of suspects. Not to mention with Pence sitting impotently in Blair House.
Yes, Madame Speaker, you take a lot of shots from now through 2020. But that’s your job and you’ve proven over the last 30 years that you’re tough enough to take the worst the GOP can dish out. The payoff comes in 2020 , when your majority EXPANDS FURTHER*, and you legitimately claim personal and political vindication on all counts.
*Not to mention the impact on state, local, senate and presidential elections in a redistricting election year.