We can all agree that Nancy Pelosi is driving Donald Trump crazy, by which I mean, of course, crazier than usual. We can agree, too, and that no one has ever gotten this far into his head \u2014 not Comey, not Mueller, not anyone.<\/p>\n
If you watched Trump\u2019s Roosevelt Room news conference the other day \u2014 if you\u2019re keeping score, that would be the bizarre news conference the day after Trump stalked out of the meeting with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer on infrastructure, not the bizarre one in the Rose Garden the day of the meeting \u2014 you saw how crazed that crazy can be.<\/p>\n
Trump has spent the last few days on a Pelosi-inspired rampage. And it\u2019s not just his recycled tirade that Pelosi has \u201clost it,\u201d that \u201cshe\u2019s not the same,\u201d that she\u2019s \u201ca mess,\u201d that she can\u2019t even understand Trump\u2019s new North American trade agreement.<\/p>\n
He made the exact same move against Hillary, remember? It may have worked once, but it\u2019s fair to guess that Pelosi has more game than Clinton.<\/p>\n
The truly bizarre moments came in the seven minutes Trump spent trying to convince people that he didn\u2019t have a temper tantrum \u2014 as Pelosi had called it. I\u2019m talking about him actually calling on three staffers who were at the brief infrastructure meeting to vouch for his calmness\/sanity.<\/p>\n
You ever see The Big Lebowski? \u201cI\u2019m perfectly calm, Dude.\u201d You ever see\/read The Caine Mutiny? Someone took Trump\u2019s strawberries.<\/p>\n
The question I have is not whether Trump had a tantrum \u2014 does quietly seething while stalking out of a meeting qualify? \u2014 but what exactly Pelosi\u2019s game is.<\/p>\n
Is she driving Trump crazy simply for our amusement? I hope this doesn\u2019t make me a bad person, but I do find it funny as hell.<\/p>\n
Is she driving Trump crazy in order to reinforce that the self-described extremely stable genius is neither stable or a genius? I mean, she\u2019s hitting hard \u2014 questioning his manhood, calling for a family intervention, advising him to take a leave of absence. This is a feud like none I\u2019ve ever seen. It has gotten to the point where Trump and his TV lawyer are left to retaliate by retweeting doctored or heavily edited clips of Pelosi. And we\u2019re knocking Facebook for not policing itself?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s some thought that Pelosi lured Trump into a trap \u2014 that she intentionally enraged him by accusing him of a cover-up just before the infrastructure meeting to make sure that Trump would walk out.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the thinking: It\u2019s hard for Democrats to turn down a $2 trillion infrastructure bill, after all, even knowing that it would provide Trump with a large victory heading into 2020. But if Trump walks away? If Trump is saying he\u2019ll never work with Pelosi so long as the House continues all these investigations into various examples of Trumpian malfeasance? Who loses then?<\/p>\n
As far as I know, Pelosi\u2019s plan may include all of the above, but I have an idea that there may be something more at work here. And it may have less to do with Trump than with potentially mutinous Democrats.<\/p>\n
Pelosi is the one person who can hold off \u2014 at least for a while \u2014 House Democrats from starting an impeachment process against Trump. To impeach or not impeach has been the only real question in Washington since the redacted release of the Mueller report. I know the polls say that people don\u2019t want to see Trump impeached. The polls also said, in a similar pre-impeachment stage, that they didn\u2019t want to see Nixon impeached.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the pro-impeachment side in the House grows daily. Joe Neguse and Diana DeGette just joined the team. The list of presidential hopefuls calling for impeachment also is on the rise \u2014 although not yet including John Hickenlooper or Michael Bennet.<\/p>\n
Pelosi doesn\u2019t say that Trump, the cover-up king, isn\u2019t deserving of impeachment. In her weekly press conference Thursday, she said, \u201cLet me be very clear: the president\u2019s behavior, as far as his obstruction of justice, the things that he is doing, it\u2019s in plain sight, it cannot be denied \u2014 ignoring subpoenas, obstruction of justice \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Her concern is all about strategy and whether Trump, like Bill Clinton before him, could wind up winning an impeachment battle. But that\u2019s a difficult argument to maintain. If Trump should be impeached \u2014as most Democrats say \u2014 then the right thing, it seems to me, would be to impeach him.<\/p>\n
And so, understanding this dynamic, what Pelosi is saying instead is that Trump wants to be impeached. Seriously. Here\u2019s the quote, as reported by several outlets, from a conversation she had with top Democratic lawmakers: \u201cHe wants to be impeached so he can be exonerated by the Senate. His actions are villainous to the constitution of the United States.\u201d This is a quote she wanted to be leaked.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the briar patch argument \u2014 that Trump\u2019s refusal to cooperate with all the House committees, his refusal to allow key witnesses to testify, his refusal to turn over documents, his refusal to turn over his tax returns \u2014 are all part of the game and that Democrats shouldn\u2019t take the bait.<\/p>\n
Is Trump really crazy enough to want to be impeached? I doubt it. My guess is he doesn\u2019t turn over documents and doesn\u2019t want people to testify because he\u2019s afraid that either or both could lead to impeachment. He may be a brinkmanship freak, but I don\u2019t think any president, even Trump, wants to be stained by an impeachment even if there\u2019s little chance he could be convicted by a Republican-controlled Senate.<\/p>\n
So how does Pelosi win a standoff with fellow Democrats? It\u2019s pretty clear, isn\u2019t it? By constantly needling Trump as Dems cheers her on. By winning the daily battles with Trump as a way to avoid all-out war. By playing Trump\u2019s game better than Trump does.<\/p>\n
Mike Littwin runs Sundays in the Aspen Times. A former columnist for the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post, he currently writes for ColoradoIndependent.com.<\/p>\n