In the wonderful 1992 film Scent of a Woman, a lovely and decent young man named Charlie at a prestigious private boys' school is tormented by the vicious and arrogant headmaster, Mr. Trask.  Because Charlie is a scholarship student and not a son of the very rich like his classmates, Trask believes he can manipulate the boy into snitching on the students who rigged up a balloon filled with yellow paint and burst it over Trask's fancy sports car.  Trask threatens the boy, tells him he will withdraw his scholarship if he refuses to tattle in public.

Sound familiar?  Trask is an almost perfect incarnation of Adam Schiff, currently running the phony impeachment inquiry in his obsessive preoccupation with seeing President Trump removed from office.  Trask, like Schiff, is pompous and self-important, and he uses the power he has over his students for his own ends.  Why Pelosi ever gave Schiff any power over anything, let alone the Intel Committee, is a mystery.  Surely, she is embarrassed by his fascist tactics in service of his obsession.  But then again, perhaps she is not.  Who knows what goes on in her addle-pated, Botoxed brain?  Is she, like Schiff, morally and intellectually challenged?  They are both making fools of themselves. 

James Howard Kuntsler thinks she may be offering Schiff up as some sort of sacrifice:

Is it possible that Rep. Adam Schiff was hung out to dry by the devious Ms. Pelosi, feeding his vanity to be a one-man impeachment wrecking crew, knowing that the congressman from Hollywood would utterly blow it?  Hmmmmm.  Begins to look that way as Mr. Schiff's House Intel Committee goes public this Wednesday with its soviet-style format on full display.

Read the whole thing.  Kuntsler may be right, or perhaps Pelosi is blindly all in on impeachment.  Is it possible she has lost all touch with reality, that she thinks Schiff and his Deep State cohorts can convince enough Republicans to abandon the most successful president since Reagan?  Hard to believe, but possible. 

Schiff is running an autocratic, inexplicable "inquiry" reminiscent of Kafka's The Trial.  He has no cause, no evidence with which to indict Trump for anything but what he is making up along the way.  A perfectly reasonable phone conversation in no way rises to the level Schiff is claiming, and he's already moved on from "quid pro quo" (that would be what Joe Biden has admitted to for all to see).  No more obstruction of Congress.  Now Schiff is claiming that Trump committed "bribery and extortion."  Ridiculous.  Schiff is grasping at straws, and his minions, like the clueless Swalwell and Jackie Speier, regurgitate his ever changing charges as if legitimate.  They are making a mockery of our Constitution and our legal system, both of which guarantee due process.  Schiff seems to think he is above the law.  "It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to so sure of themselves" (Kafka, The Trial).

Trump is the most investigated president in history and, it would seem, the squeaky-cleanest ever.  Within Kafka's novel is an ancient parable, Before the Law.  It is cited in other works as well.  It is vague, seemingly impenetrable, but it suggests that whatever legal system it references is flawed but that people sometimes accept injustice and make no attempt to enact change.  They lie down and take it.  Trump, as we all know, rejects this kind of self-destructive passivity out of hand.  He fights back, which is why his supporters love him and will re-elect him.

Schiff is like Scent of a Woman's Trask: mean, without respect for any individual in his way.  He is like the tormentors of Josef K. in Kafka's book; he has no compassion, no concern for due process.  Like Trask the hardened headmaster, Schiff is a truly terrible example of what a member of Congress should be.  He is, as we have come to see, malevolent, on a mission to sabotage the Trump presidency by any means available to him, even if immoral and unconstitutional.  He is the worst sort of human being: a man without a conscience.  The question of the day is, why are the Republicans standing still for this? 

At the end of Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino, as the hero Col. Frank Slade, who is blind, virtually screams at Trask, the headmaster who has orchestrated a show trial to force Charlie to reveal the names of the pranksters (Trask already knows who they are): "If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take a flamethrower to this place!"  He then warns: "Makers of men, creators of leaders, be careful what kind of leaders you're producing here."

One could say the same of the current Democratic Party.  These are not leaders in any way, shape, or form.  What they are allowing Adam Schiff to do is beyond shameful; it is despicable, and most of them surely know it, but just as so many Republicans are cowards for letting this go forward without a fight, they too are cowards, afraid of Pelosi, afraid of standing up for what is right.  "Well, gentlemen, when the s--- hits the fan, some guys run and some guys stay."  Not one Democrat has condemned what Schiff is doing, but there are a few brave Republicans in the House: Nunes, Jordan, Gaetz, Meadows, Zeldin, Ratcliffe.  God bless them.  We are still waiting for any Republican senator to stand up...still waiting.  Lindsey Graham talks a good game now and then but does exactly nothing.

A final quote from Scent of a Woman: "There is nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit." Col. Slade was talking about Charlie, whom he was defending.  But in today's climate, it is Adam Schiff and his partners in their drive to see President Trump impeached who all suffer from amputated spirits.  They are soulless anti-Americans who want to transform the U.S. into a Marxist-socialist society in which only they enjoy freedom and opportunity.  They promote class and racial strife on purpose.  They disparage the police and the military.  They crave power above all else, power over the rest of us.  The Republicans in Congress as well as the many millions of Trump-supporters must fight these wannabe despots.  They mean us all harm as surely as Kafka's thugs meant undeserved harm to Josef K. and headmaster Trask meant to harm Charlie.  They do not give a damn if they execute the soul of America.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.