Eric Greitens sex scandal debate: Impeach Trump mini-me governor now or later? Eric Greitens compares himself to Donald Trump and says he's the victim of a witch hunt. But his sex scandal will likely force him out of office.

Melinda Henneberger | Opinion columnist

Show Caption Hide Caption Governor sex scandal: 'I didn't want this' The most talked-about woman in Missouri asked that her name not be used for this story and her face not be shown, but admits she had an affair with Governor Eric Greitens.

There is only one Donald J. Trump. But he does have a younger, leaner Missouri mini-me in Gov. Eric Greitens.

Like the president, our governor is also an outsider’s outsider, who had never run for office before 2016. He, too, railed against the corruption and mediocrity of professional politicians, for whom he had nothing but contempt. He, too, ran on draining the swamp. And then had a spectacularly scandal-filled first year in office, accomplishing little beyond scotching low-income housing tax credits and vetoing aid for disabled Missourians. You know, if you consider that sort of thing an achievement.

Now, with next to no friends on either side of the aisle, few beyond the governor himself are betting that the 44-year-old former Navy SEAL will serve out his term. Since the bipartisan Missouri House committee investigating him issued its holy-crap report last week, detailing a physically and sexually abusive relationship with his former hairdresser, the only real argument in Jefferson City seems to be whether to start impeachment proceedings now, as Democrats prefer, or in a later special session, as his fellow Republicans want to do.

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Even as he faces removal, Greitens overtly compares himself to the president. He admits no wrongdoing, and has repeatedly likened the criminal investigation into his behavior to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Trump’s dealings. “This is exactly like what’s happening with the witch hunts in Washington, D.C,” Greitens said last week, then went on to make the woman he allegedly manipulated and threatened out to be a liar who doesn’t know dream-time from daylight.

No, he is not being investigated for possible collusion with a hostile foreign power. His lawyers are more lawyerly than the president’s, and from what we know, the case against him is far less daunting.

But there are parallels: The governor’s narcissism is no less acute. (If you doubt this, a glance at the campaign ad in which he co-starred with a machine gun will remedy that. Or check out his arrival last fall at a bull-riding event in Springfield, where he rappelled from the rafters onto the floor of the arena.)

Still, not so long ago, his presidential ambitions were considered rational.

Now, in hopes of saving himself, Greitens is claiming that he had an affair with the hairdresser.

I say “claiming” because though that’s the way the former family values candidate is spinning it, the Missouri House committee of five Republicans and two Democrats found that he pressured her to have oral sex while she sobbed uncontrollably. That he hit her on several occasions, and called her a “little whore” right after blindfolding her, taping her to some exercise rings, taking her picture, and threatening to spread that image everywhere if she ever so much as repeated his name.

What a romantic, right?

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Now Greitens has Missouri taped to the exercise equipment, and he isn’t about to put the state’s need to be free of him ahead of his own ego.

Missouri state senator Rob Schaaf (a Republican who tweeted a photo of a fork after the report came out — as in, stick a fork in him) even wrote to Trump, begging him to try to get through to Greitens as his commander in chief.

The few in his party who haven’t called for his resignation apparently hope that if he’s found not guilty at his trial in May, then maybe he can spin that as exoneration. The governor could well be found not guilty, since the felony invasion of privacy charge will focus only on whether he transmitted the compromising photo he’s since told the woman he destroyed.

But exoneration in a larger sense? That’s about as likely as it is that Trump really will tell him to stop kidding himself and drop the delusional talking points about standing up against the liberals who are supposedly out to get him.

Not happening, obviously. Just as Trump himself would never willingly leave office, he won’t push Greitens to do that. But because the president really is sui generis, Greitens is a lot less likely to have a choice.

Melinda Henneberger, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is an editorial writer and a columnist for The Kansas City Star. Follow her on Twitter: @MelindaKCMO.