Vice President Mike Pence ought to go ahead and take blame for it. Or the credit.

Even if he didn’t write the anonymous op-ed piece for the New York Times in which a senior Trump administration official claimed to be taking part in a coup d’etat of sorts, he’s been accused by the internet.

And if it’s on the internet, you know it has to be true. Right?

What has got the finger of blame (or credit) pointing at the silver fox from Columbus, Indiana, is the use of the word “lodestar” in the op-ed.

Seems that Pence is the only person in the English-speaking universe who uses the word.

It’s an archaic little word that essentially means a star that leads the way – like Polaris, the North Star. I know this because I was one of the thousands of people who looked it up on Merriam-Webster.com, pushing it into the top one percent of look-ups on the site on Thursday.

Admit it, you had to look it up, too.

But, anyway, because a) Pence is the only person in the English-speaking universe to use the word, and b) the word showed up in the op-ed, therefore, the internet has decided that it was Pence.

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Pence’s spokesman went to Twitter on Thursday morning (because that’s how this government makes official statements) and denied the vice president (who we won’t say has a bromance with Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin) had anything to do with it.

Now, in some ways, the person who wrote the op-ed would want to use Twitter to deny that he did it. What better way to tell the boss, “Nope, not me.”

Seriously. You want Donald Trump to read anything, you put it on Twitter. Two-hundred eighty characters and no more.

“See, Melania. Mike didn’t do it. He said it right here on Twitter. It’s probably that dumb Southerner, Jeff Sessions.”

Why would it be Pence?

Well, first of all, some have speculated that this is simply a trial balloon, the first step in the process of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office not through impeachment but using the section of the U.S. Constitution that says you can remove a blooming idiot from office simply for being a blooming idiot.

Who stands to benefit more than Pence, who would become president if the “blooming idiot” clause were invoked? And it might be Pence’s only chance to become president considering the odds are against electing him following a Trump presidency — especially if Trump somehow wins re-election.

But if you can’t believe it’s Pence, there is that other high-profile Hoosier on Trump's team — Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, who has spent this entire administration pushing back on Trump’s claims that the Russians didn’t meddle in the 2016 election.

And you remember the interview he was doing with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell in July when he learned the White House had just announced on Twitter that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be visiting the White House in the fall.

“OK, that’s gonna be special,” an incredulous Coats said.

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You know he doesn’t like some of the things he’s seeing from Trump, including the president making kissy-face with dictators like Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un all the while damaging relationships with America’s best and longest allies.

Coats is 75 years old, he’s already made his millions. He doesn’t really need the work.

But really, the list of potentially guilty parties could be long. Heck, we may end up finding out that that the letter was written in much the same way the murder was carried out in Murder on the Orient Express — with a dozen or so officials working together in sticking a dagger in Trump. One Word. At. A. Time.

But no matter who is responsible Pence ought to call CNN or the Washington Post and take the blame (or the credit).

He’d improve his standing with a large segment of the population who would see that act as trying to save the nation from an obviously erratic person.

As for the rest of them, he could simply say, “Fake News!”

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Joseph Gerth's opinion column runs on most Sundays and at various times throughout the week. He can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/josephg.