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"Have you no sense of decency, sir?" Joseph Welch pointedly said to Sen. Joseph McCarthy in 1954, after the Wisconsin demagogue tried to smear a loyal colleague. It seems unfortunate that no Republican could summon up such eloquence when Donald Trump fired assistant director of the FBI Andrew McCabe. And the president added one more clueless touch, doing it before McCabe was about to retire. He temporarily lost his pension after 21 years service.
But the imperious Trump, with his snarky language and brutal manner, can do it no other way. It also demonstrates how feckless he has been in addressing the Russia question. Instead of being forthright that he wanted to change policy in Vladimir Putin's government, he has artlessly played into his enemies' hands. Unable to articulate a policy shift, he has made it appear that all he wanted from the Russian Federation was an electoral boost against Hillary Clinton.
Certainly, Trump policies have been erratic. He turns the other cheek against Bashar al Assad's government partnership with Putin and Iran in Syria yet is advised to try to end the nuclear deal with Tehran. After deriding North Korea and demonstrating brinkmanship at every turn, he offers a meeting with Pyongyang just as he is dumping Rex Tillerson. Moreover, he proposes to replace him with the ultra hawk Mike Pompeo, who is militant toward every government on the globe but Israel. Then he mocks Pompeo's partner in toughness, H.R. McMaster. It is the foreign policy of push me, pull you -- terribly confusing.
For Trump, all is about the deed or tweet of the day. Seemingly he cannot hold a thought for 24 hours. This also explains why he is in so much trouble on the Russia probe. Again, how the most articulate of presidents cannot explain his position in clear terms suggests he has much to hide. Indeed, he was quite right when he described the FBI's and CIA's first attempt to influence him on Russia. Trump, rather pithy, called it a "shakedown," correct. The roots of the Russia scandal began on policy disagreements, then it got complicated.
Trump's aides, such as Pal Manafort, Carter Page, Papadapoulos and the large corps of retainers, tried to profit on their Kremlin ties. No doubt they were trying to affect change on Russia, but their chicanery undercut those efforts. Trump attorneys rather badly focused on the Steele dossier, which suggest influence peddling at the very least. Because he sees things in a personal way, the president became engaged in a very poor game of "match this" with his critics. Russia could have become a plus, but Trump's ignorance of world affairs made a domestic scandal.
Substance has to be countered with substance. Instead, Trump takes indecent glee at robbing a civil servant of his pension. How can you make it worse, given that Trump has no worries about money?
Government by tantrum or Jeff Sessions will not succeed. Trump is forcing a constitutional crisis by his histrionics, a crisis that could damage the United States permanently. Arrogance, vanity, hubris -- throw them all in -- Trump has displayed all these tendencies and has injured his presidency.