THESE GUYS MEAN BUSINESS

“Peril,” the new book from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa (which just landed on the front porch here at Le Chateau du Chat) is the gift that keeps on giving. Their story of the attempts Trump made to overthrow the government and remain in office are both terrifying and laugh-provoking. The tale is a combination of “King Lear,” “Dr. Strangelove” and “A Republic of Dunces.”

Other people are also taking note of this memo from former Chapman University law professor John Chapman - where he lays out the “roadmap” to the January 6 coup, had Mike Pence not discovered at the last minute what those things hanging between his legs are.

The plan was perfectly, exquisitely Trumpian:

1.Pence should lie.

2. Then he should leverage his lie in order to take the election out of the hands of American voters through the exercise of an authority he doesn’t have under the Constitution.

The plan was first proposed to Pence on January 4 in a meeting where Eastman was present with Trump, while Trump attempted to convince Pence he had the authority to stop the certification of the election. According to Woodward and Costa, he said, "You really need to listen to John. He's a respected constitutional scholar. Hear him out."

Since far right wingers are incapable of original thought, Eastman’s reliance on Professor Tribe’s argument deserves to be commented on by Professor Tribe, who has done so:

“Ludicrous but scary as hell. Think 2024. Those guys mean business - even though their “law” is totally fake.”

The important sentence there is “Think 2024.” The changes in voting rules in the crucial Republican swing states that have been or are being put in place give the Republican-controlled state legislatures the power to overturn the popular vote result in the state, allowing them to “validly appoint electors” who would vote against the expressed will of the people in the popular vote. Provide a Republican majority in the House in 2022, and in 2024, they can find a way to try and run this, regardless of Vice President Harris being there rather than Pence.

Eastman already got himself in trouble, speaking at the Stop The Steal rally on January 6, with the result that he is no longer Dean of the Chapman University Law School, having “retired” at the request of the school in lieu of being forcefully separated from all his benefits from his time there.

He’s not a newcomer to Far Right Crazy World, where the sky is green and the grass is blue. He’s a long-time resident. Bill Kristol points out that, even though he’s been dropped at Chapman, he is still the chair of the Federalist Society’s “Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group.” But of course he would be a member of the traitorous Federalist Society. All lawyers, when they take their oath to join the bar, swear that they will “defend the U.S. Constitution, in all ways, at all times.” Federalist Society lawyers take that oath with the fingers of one hand crossed behind their back. Despite his removal as dean, Eastman still heads the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence

While trying to understand what Trump was thinking about anything ever - since it’s so obvious that it’s not an activity that he engages in with sufficient practice to do it well, what’s in “Peril” pretty much makes it clear that he woke up on the morning of January 6 believing that he would, in fact, be reinstated as president. After Pence had told him the night before that he did not have the power to do what Trump wanted, and made El Blobbo del Mar A Lardo mad enough to come up with a 6-year old’s solution - “If you won’t do this, I won’t be your friend any more” - Trump green-lit the coup at the rally where he thought that he and his mob might pressure both the Vice President and congressional Republicans into going along. The violent attack on the Capitol that followed was both part of Trump’s conspiracy to hold onto power, and an outburst of anger when he failed to hector Pence into going along with this crazy scheme.

But remember: Trump is in the process of creating and reshaping a GOP that just might go along in 2024.

Like Professor Tribe says: “These guys mean business.”

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