Three times and out?

Well, this is my third impeachment…

Three presidents in deep doo-doo in one lifetime. Pretty remarkable considering the country went more than 100 years between the first attempt at giving the Chief Executive the boot and Mr. Nixon being taken to task for alleged “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Now I wasn’t around when Andy Johnson ran afoul of Congressional Republicans back in 1868, but at the very least I imagine that Abe Lincoln was a hard act to follow, and, from what I read, Johnson, a southerner and a Democrat, did precious little to endear himself to darned-near anyone in Washington. Still, by a one-vote margin he kept his key to the White House until U.S. Grant moved in in 1869.

The next century saw Warren Harding and a raft of presidential non-entities come and go before Mr. Nixon and his leaky band of Plumbers schemed to get the dirt that would do in George McGovern, as if McGovern’s presidential campaign wasn’t doing everything it could to guarantee that result all on its own. It was a remarkable achievement though, to go from a landslide election victory to Sam Ervin, “I am not a crook,” and a two-line resignation note in less than two years.

Twenty-four years later Bill Clinton was having zipper trouble.

That he wasn’t quite sure “what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” didn’t help his case one little bit..

Newt Gingrich pushed articles of impeachment through the Republican House, but the Senate – with a Republican majority -- was not convinced.

And Slick Willy was not convicted.

So now we have the strange case of Donald Trump … duly and constitutionally selected by the Electoral College despite falling short of being the people’s choice by more than 3 million votes. Accused, even before taking the oath of office, of attempting to work with the Russians to jigger the 2016 election – shades of Tricky Dicky. Also accused of buying the silence of and fibbing about porn stars and Playboy models in a manner well beyond Hillary’s husband’s impeachable shenanigans and wildest libidinous imaginings.

But that’s old news. Who needs to dwell on past transgressions with a president who sings – tweets – like a bird, guaranteeing that there’s a fresh tabloid headline flittering out of the Oval Office with a regularity that threatens to put the National Enquirer out of business. Really, folks, they can’t make this stuff up.

Which means the New York Times, Washington Post and the rest of the “lamestream media” doesn’t have to.

All of which might just do the Orange One in … although recent history teaches that one should never underestimate the Democrats’ ability to totally screw up a sure thing.

My advice to the folks looking into the latest Trumpian debacle is the same as my little league baseball coach gave to me: “Keep your eye on the ball.” Ok, I never had a problem doing that, it was getting my bat or glove on the ball that was my problem – but I digress…

That digression might not ruin my story, but if the congressional investigators allow themselves to be sucked into Trumpian digressions and false equivalencies they’re headed in the wrong direction.

All this is about the president –what he said, what he did, what he failed to do. Think of it this way: If you shoot the guy down the street, you’re no less guilty because your neighbor shot his wife. The possible deeds or misdeeds of Hunter, Hillary, Joe or anybody else are not at issue here. They have nothing to do with the president’s culpability.

If there is evidence that President Trump acted in a way that violated the law or his oath of office, under the Constitution it is the responsibility of the Congress to investigate and ultimately hold him responsible.

If the president said it; if the president did it; if the president ordered it; if the president authorized it; if the president knew about it, the president must be called to answer for it.

That’s not politics, that’s the law.