Buried in an alarming-all-by-itself Politico article pondering how far down the line of succession we'd have to get, in the Justice Department, before we found someone who would not either have to recuse themselves from the Russia-Trump investigation or who an enraged Trump wouldn't also summarily fire—oh, and by the way Trump might simply change the executive order setting the Justice Department's line of succession, thus speeding up the process of, say, eventually just giving that job to Jared Kushner as well:

“At the rate we're going, [more firings are] clearly possible, because you could go through a number of people in one go depending on the things that are asked of them,” said Jane Chong, a national security and law associate at the Hoover Institution. “If Rosenstein had refused to write the memo [laying out the case for Comey’s firing], you can imagine him being fired, and you can imagine Brand doing the same thing. It’s not difficult to see a scenario like that” playing out down the line, Chong said.

… is this little nugget of a quote.

Trump, too, is cognizant of the comparison to Nixon, according to one adviser. The president, who friends said does not enjoy living in Washington and is strained by the demanding hours of the job, is motivated to carry on because he “doesn’t want to go down in history as a guy who tried and failed,” said the adviser. “He doesn’t want to be the second president in history to resign.”

We’ve heard for a while that Trump doesn't like the job and is feeling "strained" by it even after spending nearly every last sodding Friday-to-Sunday at Mar-a-Lago or, now that the season's closed, hitting up one of his other golf courses—spending more time and taxpayer money on his own leisure than any president in recent history. He’s furious at the way he’s been treated in the press, and by opponents, and has been yelling at televisions and at his own staff for not making him magically successful and popular.

But he's tired and cranky to the extent that, according to an “adviser,” the thought of resigning has already been on his mind? Do tell.

We're only five months in, you know. That's it. The man is "strained" by the job and the town and the lack of gold-painted ceilings after only five sodding months in and, according to one of his own advisers, is hanging on after these first twentyish weeks not because he gives a flying damn about any of it but because he's afraid quitting would make him look like a failure.

Holy moly is he, the rest of his White House, and just by-the-by every last one of the rest of us in big trouble. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence is trying to skirt the Russia-Trump-Flynn-Comey-takeyourpick investigation while measuring the Oval Office drapes himself, likely under the assumption that he’ll be getting to redecorate sooner rather than later.