This is not the end of the scandals over Team Trump and Russia but merely the ending of the prologue. I do not know the truth of what happened and I do not know how this will resolve but I feel certain that there are rough waters ahead and our ship of state is in danger.

Many conservative want to hand wave this away. They’ll spout things like “pressure is not obstruction.’ and that we have only Comey’s word for what happened, or that the previous administration had done much worse things and really this is nothing new.

I don’t buy that, but then again to my conservative friends I am the turncoat. I am the Republican who walked away from the party and voted for the other team, but I have never been a good team player.

The Republican embrace of torture drove me from the party, along with the firm grip of the religious right. The years since my ‘defection’ have only supported that decision.

Today’s GOP is proving that there is an inverse relationship between zealotry and competence. Their inability to deal with Trump as a candidate and their embrace of him as an actual president only confirm that observation.