Many Americans remain amazed that Republican lawmakers can be so cowed by an unpopular and unhinged president. Do they really think he has the power to prevent their reelection, or do they simply fear the nasty tweets? It is hard to fathom how grown men and women are both so scared of losing an elected position (are they entirely unemployable elsewhere?) or receiving unhinged criticism from Trumpers. (Believe me, the latter is quite easily ignored.)

The irrational fear of Trump and his attack dogs only works for so long, however. As soon as one or two brave souls step out of line and live to fight another day, the spell of intimidation is lost. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has endorsed the legitimacy of the impeachment inquiry and condemned the use of foreign governments to influence our elections. Who looks worse — Romney or Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who cannot bear to state that soliciting foreign help to win an election is wrong and illegal? It is not even close.

Trump trashed Romney for a few days, but now has moved on to bigoted taunts of Somali Americans and revived his false accusations against the whistleblower (The Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler finds, “with the exception of some minor details, virtually all of the specific points of the complaint have held up and been confirmed”) and temper tantrums about the mainstream media. Last time I checked, Romney was doing fine. Indeed, if Trump is forced out or forced not to run for reelection, Romney would be an excellent choice for Republicans desperate to eradicate Trump’s stain on the party.