The Rule of Memo

The so-called prohibition against charging a sitting president with federal crimes is not a constitutional mandate. It's a Justice Department policy formulated in memos by lawyers who happened to be employed by Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton when the matter came up.

Reading List:
✓ Trump’s strategy to declare himself above the law and escape accountability by Paul Waldman (The Washington Post)
✓ Trump's Lawyer Says He Can't Be Guilty of Obstructing Justice: Is the President Above the Law? by Dale Eisman (Common Cause)
✓ The Supreme Court once rejected Bill Clinton’s claim of presidential immunity. Courts should now do the same with Donald Trump. The President Is Not Above the Law by Stephen B. Burbank, Richard D. Parker and Lucas A. Powe, Jr. (Politico)
✓ How Do We Keep a Criminal President From Running Out the Clock? One Possible Solution by Joshua A. Geltzer (Slate)

And another thing: Our coronations

The long delay between election and inauguration leaves room for all kinds of mischief (appointments, executive orders, proclamations -- imagine the trouble a lame-duck Donald Trump will stir up in the two and half months he will have to stew over his ouster).

The new president should be installed as soon as the election is certified and with as little pomp and circumstance as possible. We are trying to run a democracy, not a serial monarchy. The reason for the long delay is historical, not practical, and it distorts -- aggrandizes -- the office of president to have it pimped out in imperial array.

Standards: Bush’s Torture Memos Author OK with Nuking Civilians, Draws the Line at Crushing Children’s Testicles

George Bush's senior Justice Department legal adviser John Yoo defended comments that the president could unilaterally "massacre" civilians in wartime in a newly released interview.

The rest of the story:
Top Bush adviser defends using nuclear weapons on civilians by John Byrne (RawStory).