The wrong Johnson

This madness-of-King-Donald piece is entertaining reading even if the general contours are predictable at this point. But I particularly like the symbolism of this detail:

Students of the American presidency, on the other hand, could think of no recent parallel. “As we move toward Inauguration Day, I have thought almost daily of a remark attributed to Henry Adams: ‘I expected the worst, and it was worse than I expected,’” said Patricia O’Toole, a biographer of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson as well as Adams.

Unlike any of his modern predecessors, Mr. Trump has not called his victorious opponent, much less invited him to the White House for the traditional postelection visit. Mr. Trump has indicated that he may not attend Mr. Biden’s inauguration, which would make him the first sitting president since 1869 to refuse to participate in the most important ritual of the peaceful transfer of power.

Fitting that Trump would have this in common with his only serious competition of America’s worst ever president. Only in 1869 the Republican Party was Johnson’s enemy, while the GOP is now fully the political servant of the mashup of Andrews Jackson and Johnson.

…relevant!

Trump's lawyer here is the same who wrote that tendentious Newsweek op-ed suggesting Harris might not be a natural-born citizen. https://t.co/2Qpxxb3puK— Sal Rizzo (@rizzoTK) December 9, 2020