On the Brink.

They all have to go. Everyone of them. Not just Donald Trump, but every other cabinet member and the loathsome Paul Ryan. Everyone has to go.

Mike Pence.

Rex Tillerson.

Betsy DeVos.

Rick Perry.

Ben Carson.

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.

Scott Puritt.

All 15 members of this corrupt, vapid, ill-equipped, unprepared, mean-spirited, lying-like-my-dead-dog administration needs to resign. Along with Donald J. Trump. The events that have unfolded before our eyes in little over 100 days prove that none of these people have any inclination of governing or even the most rudimentary understanding of how the federal government works.

We cannot wait for a Mark Felt or a John Doar to dig through the bureaucratic minutiae. There is no time for Woodward and Bernstein (or the modern-day equivalent) to peel off the onion of obstruction, lies and incompetence that might take years to uncover. We don’t have that kind of time. We don’t have the luxury of watching Trump unravel, because unlike Nixon, he already has.

This man should never have been President*. By firing Comey on Tuesday night, 45 has basically boxed himself into a corner. And all of those around him, including every staffer, appointee, Ivanka, Jared, his sons Spin and Marty, are in the same corner as well, boxed in. The only alternative is to resign. Or leave. Quit. Before anymore damage is done.

Because after the events of Tuesday night, this isn’t about Russia anymore. It isn’t about the investigations or the election or the health care bill. It’s not about any of that, because it has become a question of competency. It has become a question of survival. Of whether we as a nation can allow this farce to continue. It can’t, not for much longer.

Even those who voted for him know this, deep down. They won’t admit it, but they know it to be true. In his seminal book, “Nixonland,” Rick Pearlstein tells the story of how Nixon, rejected by every fraternity and club at small Whittier College, formed his own club, the Orthogonian’s. He carried around a lifetime of resentments and it ate away at him. When he died, in 1994 of a stroke, reportedly his last words were “help me.”

Much like Nixon, Trump has a lifetime of resentments as well. Those are well-documented and out there for everyone to see. The NFL (twice) and NHL rejected him, as did Major League Baseball and Augusta National (where The Master’s is played every April).

But this isn’t about Trump or Nixon or comparing the two. It’s about the country and whether or not we are willing to see the fact that this man is woefully in over his head and so is the rest of his team. The difference between 2017 and 1974 is this: We don’t have four years to investigate and find “the best available version of the truth,” as Bernstein recently put it. We don’t have months, either. We have weeks, maybe even days before even the “party before country” Republicans in Congress can’t ignore it anymore. This cannot drag out another 1300 days. He has to go.