The general rose to his feet, took his cigar out of his mouth, turned to the officer, and replied, with a degree of animation which he seldom manifested : "Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do."

—Campaigning With Grant, Horace Porter

From the start, the response of the Democratic Party to the Russian ratfcking of the 2016 presidential election, and to the ghastly presidency* that it helped produce, has been overly influenced by what might happen instead of what actually is happening. When the interference came to light, the Obama administration sought yet another solution that depended on Mitch McConnell's not being a power-mad pit viper of a human being. If the administration brought its evidence to the public, McConnell threatened to accuse the administration of using the intelligence community to help the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton. From the Washington Post:

According to several officials, McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.Some of the Republicans in the briefing also seemed opposed to the idea of going public with such explosive allegations in the final stages of an election, a move that they argued would only rattle public confidence and play into Moscow’s hands.

The Obama administration backed off. What the hell, HRC was a lock to win anyway. The president* got elected. For his part, McConnell expressed his undying gratitude this past May when, upon release of the redacted Mueller report, he blamed Obama for not having done enough to keep our elections secure.

Mitch McConnell capitalized on Democrats’ fear of the possible. Chip Somodevilla Getty Images

We're seeing the same weird pseudo-clairvoyant timidity now as regards merely opening an impeachment inquiry into the acts of a president* who, more than any of his predecessors, deserves to be the subject of an impeachment inquiry. What's the point, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives says, if any impeachment will fail in the Senate anyway? What if the inquiry itself only makes the president* stronger and "solidifies his base"? Why don't we wait and see what the various congressional inquiries turn up?

This last one is a beauty: the Democratic leadership of the House is so concerned about getting all its ducks in a row that the row of ducks now extends over the far horizon and into the Undying Lands, and it still isn't long enough or neat enough for the House to act. And, because of this fear of future phantoms, we get this from the president* to George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.

Asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in the Oval Office on Wednesday whether his campaign would accept such information from foreigners -- such as China or Russia -- or hand it over the FBI, Trump said, "I think maybe you do both."

"I think you might want to listen, there isn't anything wrong with listening," Trump continued. "If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent' -- oh, I think I'd want to hear it."

"It's not an interference, they have information -- I think I'd take it," Trump said. "If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI -- if I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, they come up with oppo research, 'oh let's call the FBI.' The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it. When you go and talk, honestly, to congressman, they all do it, they always have, and that's the way it is. It's called oppo research."

"Somebody comes up and says, ‘hey, I have information on your opponent,' do you call the FBI?" Trump responded."I'll tell you what, I've seen a lot of things over my life. I don't think in my whole life I've ever called the FBI. In my whole life. You don't call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you do," Trump continued. "Oh, give me a break – life doesn't work that way."

[Ed. Note: Apparently, the 400-pound hacker in his bed in New Jersey has been replaced by Norway as an alternate theory of the crime.]

He did it before and he will do it again. He's saying it out loud. Sometimes, you know, the ducks get tired of just standing there in a row and fly off out of sheer boredom.

This post has been updated.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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