A Cynical But Realistic View of Power Play in Washington, DC

choi

Daniel Henninger, Is This Trump's Watergate?  Unless Team Trump gets back to the basics of the 2016 election, 1974 could return. Wall Street Journal, Feb 16, 2016 (columnist).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-this-trumps-watergate-1487203208
https://secure.marketwatch.com/s ... atergate-2017-02-15

Quote:

"The Trump opposition—Democrats, unions, Never Trumpers [in presidential campaign, there were diverse people within Republican Party whose view was 'Never Trump' and would accept anybody else as party nominee]—now know that if they can turn three Republican senators against him, he won't matter. [Currently Senate has 52 Republicans.]

"Forgotten now is that Nixon didn't resign because of anything proven by the anonymous torrent, but only after he saw he'd lost the support of his own party in Congress. We're not there, yet.

Note:
(a) "The Watergate 'meme' that attached itself instantly to Mike Flynn’s firing over his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak was: What did President Trump know, and when did he know it?"

meme (n; Did You Know?): "an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meme

(b) "The Democrats are in the congressional minority, and however much they intone the I-word [impeach or impeachment], there will be no Sam Ervin committee."
(i) United States Senate Watergate Committee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un ... Watergate_Committee
(known officially as the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities; 1973-1974)

Quote: "Working under committee chairman Sam Ervin (D-North Carolina), the committee played a pivotal role in gathering evidence that would lead to the indictment of forty administration officials and the conviction of several of Nixon's aides for obstruction of justice and other crimes. Its revelations prompted the impeachment process against Richard Nixon

(ii) 93rd United States Congress
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/93rd_United_States_Congress
(Jan 3, 1973-Jan 3, 1975; section 4 Party summary: composition of both Senate and House of Representatives -- Democratic Party overwhelmed in either chamber)

(c) "a good question is whether they'll [Team Trump will] drain the swamp before the swamp swallows them"

drain the swamp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drain_the_swamp

(d) "Whether the Pence wedge between him and the inner circle (as of this week) is true hardly matters. Life in the capital wouldn't be much fun without believing such things [anonymous leaks, or rumors]. Washington's most powerful force is . . . the whisper."
(i) The "wedge" is a noun, not a verb.
(ii) It is unclear to me who "him" is. Trump?  It can not be Pence.