It all came gushing out this week in a steady stream of filthy details and shocking developments from all levels, as if the executive branch of the federal government had come down with a stomach virus, or maybe a bad case of food poisoning.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for an impeachment inquiry last week based on President Trump’s possibly treasonous request of the Ukrainian president — that is, to use the Ukrainian government apparatus to take out Trump’s most-feared political rival, Joe Biden — it was like somebody had pulled a cork.

Turns out Trump had dispatched his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani — who holds no official government position — to cut some of these deals. Turns out Attorney General Bill Barr has been asking foreign governments — so far we know about Australia and Italy — to investigate the CIA, the FBI and, yeah, Joe Biden, for weeks, if not months, if not years. At this point, nobody knows except Trump, Giuliani and Barr.

Nutty conservatives have been crapping on about the “deep state” since Trump got the nomination, but in fact this is what a deep state looks like: a shadow government operating without oversight, carrying out transactions the public is not supposed to know about.

If this is still a nation of laws and not individuals — and it may not be — then duty dictates we must begin impeachment, no matter if there won’t be enough votes in the Senate, no matter if Vice President Mike Pence becomes president, no matter if it actually ends up helping Trump in 2020.

Impeachment is not about politics, or, rather, it’s not supposed to be. Impeachment is about a failure to adhere to the principles of office. It’s about the sanctity of the United States government, the rule of law, the state of our union. It’s about resolving a constitutional crisis; and like it or not we are in the middle of one right now.

Trump has threatened civil war on his Twitter feed. He wants to interview the whistleblower, whose identity, as of press time, is thankfully still unknown — and which completely defeats the purpose of whistle-blowing.. Barr broke protocol by declining to investigate the Ukraine phone call in which he himself was implicated — the sort of conflict of interest that even the cracker leprechaun Jeff Sessions understood called for a recusal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said that his staffers will ignore the Congressional subpoena issued this week.

Sure, it’s a drastic measure and there are no guarantees — impeachment is a process, not an outcome. But it’s time to expel this virus form the body politic, even if it breaks the toilet.

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