The same people who never met a constitutional amendment they didn’t want to weaken or destroy will now act as if a middling procedural showdown is the next Watergate. Mainstream media stories about Nadler’s fishing expeditions have already framed Democrats as stewards of law and order, forced into impeachment by inflexible Republicans.

The intelligence committee’s Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., has maintained for years that he has incontrovertible evidence of the administration colluding with Russia. Pelosi has claimed on numerous occasions that Trump engaged in criminal behavior. It’s so bad, she recently argued, that the president is “self-impeachable,” whatever that means.

It’s one thing for Congress to run forever investigations, which have become the norm in Washington. It’s another to spend two years — and possibly six, if Trump wins in 2020 — using congressional power to create bogus “constitutional crises” that continue to corrode genuine checks and balances.