I HOPE TRUMP DOESN'T SEE THIS – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:  I wouldn't want Mike Pence to disappear in the White House basement.   From Axios:

Beyond his base voters, Trump has an even bigger potential problem looming with his base in Congress. While Republican lawmakers won't say it publicly, it's widely known if they could pick between President Pence and President Trump, the Vice President would win 90% of the vote among the GOP.

Why this matters: Bill Clinton benefited from a large number of true fans and believers among elected Democrats when he survived impeachment. Trump has few authentic fans or loyalists in Congress. So if things take a turn for the worse, GOP flight could come fast and furious — since the end result would be President Pence.

COMMENT:  This is the great unspoken political issue.  It's there, it's felt, it's not discussed on TV panel shows.  There are many GOP members of Congress who would love to see Trump shoved out the way Nixon was shoved out – by forcing him to resign. 

Problem is, Trump isn't Nixon.  Nixon, with all his faults, had a sense of politics and a sense of history.  He resigned because he knew the alternative was probably impeachment.  Even if he wasn't convicted at an impeachment trial, he knew he'd be fatally weakened.

Trump is no such animal.  He's the roughest of the gut fighters.  Whether he'd resign in the face of some stunning revelation, or the findings of an investigation, is "iffy."  But Mike Pence is waiting in the wings, and is out on the stump often.  

It may come to that.  That's when the drama really begins.

June 12, 2017