James Comey's testimony

Green, however, has taken the enthusiastic lead, calling the act of firing Comey an "obstruction of justice". "Obstruction of justice by the President is the problem. Impeachment by Congress is the solution." Green has been of such a persuasion from the start, and while he exudes principle on this score, he has already reached judgment on the matter. Constitutional lawyers, however, differ.

Green's views received the backing of two anti-Trump resistance groups, MoveOn.org Civil Action and Invisible. The executive of MoveOn did not "make this call [for impeachment] lightly" but it is hard to imagine anything not having an element of lightness when dealing with the relentless Trump vortex.

Invisible, having concluded that Comey's testimony was ample, accurate and sufficient, felt that Trump had, in fact "tried to obstruct justice." Stating the obvious point that obstructing justice was impeachable, the organisation did not pause to consider that ethical abuse and legal manipulation straddles a grey area. But anger is the enemy of circumspection. "Impeachment takes time but we need to start the process now."

Former ethics czar during the Obama years, Norm Eisen, provided another reading, claiming that the testimony was a "significant inflection point". Leaked and hearsay evidence had existed before but "for the first time, we had direct evidence of obstruction of justice. It was a giant step towards accountability for Trump, but there will be many more giant steps necessary."

The emphasis should be on the sheer gigantic nature of those steps. In this postmodern theatre of competing views, each group stuck to their stubborn, already minted interpretations. Prior to the testimony, minds had already closed. Even Comey added a tantalising number to the tenor of the whole session, a nod to the Richard Nixon White House. "I have seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes."