A West Wing Christmas Present

A Third Impeachment? Washington Straps a Rocket to a Corpse and Calls It Progress

WASHINGTON — Washington has a tradition: when nothing is happening, pretend something is happening and hope the public is too tired to notice the difference. And right on schedule, impeachment rumors for Donald J. Trump have returned, dragging themselves across the floor like a zombie missing half a leg.

The truth? A third impeachment isn’t coming this Christmas. But the players pushing it know how to make noise, and noise is all Washington really trades in anymore.

It started when Rep. Al Green (D-TX) walked in front of microphones on November 20th and declared he would file articles of impeachment before Christmas. He used terms like “privileged resolution,” which in Washington means: “We know this won’t work, but it will definitely get airtime.”

Earlier this year, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) introduced his own seven-count impeachment package, full of dramatic accusations—obstruction, corruption, constitutional abuse. It had everything except support from his own party. Leadership yanked the plug before it even left the charger.

Together, Green and Thanedar have revived a story that should have stayed buried. But this is D.C. They dig up political corpses the way teenagers dig up urban legends. “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Impeach Trump.”

This isn’t news because impeachment is possible. It’s news because the same characters keep reenacting the same doomed ritual.

Green is earnest. Thanedar is defiant. Trump is Trump — a man who could fall down a staircase, bounce twice, and claim it was a genius move. And the parties? Republicans won’t touch impeachment unless Trump personally kicks over the Lincoln Memorial. Democrats won’t touch it unless they’re guaranteed success, which means never.

So what we have is the usual Washington séance: dim lights, shaky candles, and lawmakers chanting “Accountability” into an empty void.

The math hasn’t changed. Republicans control the House. Republicans control the Senate. You could carve the impeachment articles into stone tablets and drop them from Mount Sinai, and the GOP would still vote to table them before lunch.

The impeachment process is supposed to have teeth. Right now, it gums everything like a 105-year-old who lost the dentures in a nursing home laundry room.

That’s the real story: Trump has broken the immune system of American accountability. We’ve got antibodies, but they’re lazy, confused, and arguing about whose job it is to do something.

Two failed impeachments. One failed insurrection. A dozen scandals. A fistful of court cases. And still, the man glides through Washington like Teflon coated in holy oil.

Even if Green files the articles tomorrow, the House will table them before the coffee cools. Democrats will split. Republicans will sneer. Trump will post something barely coherent online, and the world will keep spinning.

This isn’t a political process. It’s community theater.

And the actors keep showing up because the audience, battered and exhausted, still buys tickets out of habit.

Make no mistake: Green and Thanedar believe what they’re doing matters. And maybe it does. Maybe history will record that someone tried. But Washington doesn’t reward effort. It rewards power. And the people with power have already decided Trump is untouchable until further notice.

The tragedy — the gallows humor at the heart of it all — is that we’ve become a nation where impeaching a president is easier than preventing him from running again after being convicted of crimes.

That’s not a system. That’s a comedy sketch written by people who hate us.

So this “third impeachment” rumor persists not because it has legs, but because Washington keeps strapping fireworks to the corpse and lighting the fuse. It won’t run. It won’t rise. It won’t change a thing.

But the sparks look great in the dark.

APA References

Plummer, K. (2025, November 21). Donald Trump faces articles of impeachment before Christmas. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-faces-articles-of-impeachment-before-christmas-al-green-11087381

Briceno, L. (2025, November 20). Dem lawmaker sets litmus test for party with 5th Trump impeachment effort. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-lawmaker-sets-litmus-test-party-5th-trump-impeachment-effort

Thanedar, S. (2025, April 28). Congressman Shri Thanedar introduces articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump. U.S. House of Representatives. https://thanedar.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-shri-thanedar-introduces-articles-of-impeachment-against-president-donald-j-trump-for-high-crimes-and-misdemeanors

U.S. Congress. (2025). H.Res. 353 – Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/353

Sheehey, M. (2025, May 20). Rogue House Democrat will again force Trump impeachment vote. Bloomberg Government News. https://news.bgov.com/bloomberg-government-news/rogue-house-democrat-will-again-force-trump-impeachment-vote

Associated Press. (2025, May 14). Democratic congressman pushes Trump impeachment, but backs down from vote. https://apnews.com/article/7f5d4b2d7cfa07be98a5267915357d6e

Times of India. (2025, May 15). Indian-origin Democrat Shri Thanedar retreats on impeachment push after party blowback. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/its-a-start-indian-origin-democrat-shri-thanedar-retreats-on-donald-trump-impeachment-push-after-party-blowback/articleshow/121174514.cms