I’m sorry …. the president of the United States, having twice failed to win a democratic election for that office (defining a democratic election as one in which the candidate minimally receives the support of a plurality of the electorate) attempted over a year ago to usurp power and effectively to end self-determination for 330 million people.

Mike Pence did the very least that we the people had the right to expect: he rejected a blatantly false and utterly preposterous theory of his prerogatives that would have been quickly thrown out by the Supreme Court — despite the fact that fully a third of those black robes were being sported by Trump nominees. Good for him: the man from Indiana is as bland as he is devout, but no one ever mistook him for a revolutionary. So Mike, thanks for being who you are and doing your job.

But it has taken him 13 months to utter the words, “President Trump was wrong.” Give him credit for that? After thirteen months? For God’s sake why? Our constitutional system provides a method for resolving disputes, after which we are expected to move forward as one nation. Trump and his merry band of fools and liars availed themselves of that remedy more than sixty times, failing to prove anything other than the fact that they were as persistent as they were inept.

When are we going to stop coddling those who are prepared to shred the constitution out of deference to a con artist named Trump? When it mattered Pence did the right thing. Bully for him. But credit for simply saying that Trump was wrong? About thirteen months too late for that.