Mueller, the wall impasse, the shutdown, the "postponement" of the SOTU – all are skirmishes in the undeclared war on President Trump waged by Democrats, the Deep State, and the compliant media.  A decisive battle will be enjoined if Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies or resigns this year.

Nothing scares the left more than the prospect of Trump filling another seat on the SCOTUS with a young, fire-breathing constitutionalist who would join with Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh to form a conservative bloc for the ages. 

Pelosi and Schumer are praying that Justice Ginsburg survives and remains on the bench until January 1, 2020, when their concern for her well-being ceases.  They know that Senate majority leader McConnell could not persuade his entire caucus to abandon the principle he championed in 2016 that a nomination to the Supreme Court in a presidential election year is inappropriate.

Here's how it may go if RBG vacates the bench or the Earth soon, as seems likely: Pelosi will immediately schedule a vote to launch a formal impeachment inquiry, pre-empting the president's announcement of his choice to fill Ginsburg's seat.  It will pass along partisan lines, swamping other news.  Next, the House Judiciary Committee (Jerrold Nadler, chair) will draw up charges against the president.  Eventually, the committee will vote out articles of impeachment.  At some point after this, the entire House votes on the articles.  Trump is impeached.

With President Clinton, it took about five months for the entire process to play out, ending with a vote of "not guilty."  Depending on when the ball drops, Democrats have two ways to work the Trump hit job for an even more extended time and for maximum effect:

• Slow-walk the process leading to the full House impeachment vote.  The longer it takes to get there, the longer Trump remains under a cloud and, in some eyes, delegitimized.  Pelosi will be in no hurry get the matter to the Senate, where McConnell would schedule the trial as soon as possible to end the nightmare. 
• Fast-track the full House vote on impeachment – and hope, as I said in an earlier post, the public conflates impeachment with conviction.

Either way, Democrats and their media allies will flood the country with impeachment fare and string it out.  Likely, four or five Republican senators turn jellyfish and inform McConnell they will not support Trump's nominee to the SCOTUS while the president is in legal limbo. 

Everyone knows that the Senate will not convict.  And that's fine with the prescient among Trump's enemies.  They want a weakened adversary in the Oval Office, not President Pence.  If Schumer and Pelosi can keep the circus going into 2020, they believe that Trump's ability to govern will be curtailed and perhaps, if they're lucky, his spirit broken.

As Carville – or "Serpenthead," as he is known to political herpetologists – might say, "when the hunt's done and the moon's come over the bayou, our dogs'll lie down by the fire where Trump's simmerin' in the stewpot with the mudbugs."

You get the gist.

Steve Grammatico is the author of You Hear Me, Barack? PC-Free Conservative Satire.  He blogs at You Hear Me, Barack?  A Repository of Conservative Satire.