15 December—I could almost feel sorry for Donald Trump. Almost. Repeat, almost. Emphasize, almost. If he weren’t Donald Trump, I’d feel sorry for him. Assuming he wasn’t some other scumbag, of course.

Trump, you see, is going through hard times just now. Probably not financially, sorry to say. He’s losing his political mojo. Not that he doesn’t deserve the grief, suffering, and general tsuris in spades, as long as he lives.

Sisyphus, you’ll recall, was punished by Hades, god of the dead and the underworld, by being forced to roll a boulder up a steep hill in Tartarus only to have it roll down every time it (and he) neared the top—for eternity. One of King Sisyphus’s offenses was hubris—excessive pride, arrogance, pretension, and the ineluctable need to win.

That’s Greek mythology, of course, but who’s to say the late Sisyphus isn’t pushing that rock even as you read this?

Whom does Sisyphus remind you of? One guess. So his punishment seems entirely fitting for Donald Trump, among others you can name.

So why the pity for Trump? Well, it’s the Republicans. Surprised? Now that their messiah is heading up shit’s creek, evidently without a paddle, his good-time buddies are dumping him and dumping on him in a crescendo of self-interest. What are political friends for, after all?

Incredibly, an impressive minority—about 40 percent—of Trump’s benighted Republican unwashed base still view their con man-in-chief favorably. But the GOP establishment, tactically—if not tactfully—pulling their fingers out and seeing how the wind blows, are throwing him under the bus.

Now, to be fair, that’s not unfair. Because Trump has never but never hesitated to throw people—and who knows what else—under the bus whenever they haven’t suited his purpose, however nefarious, maleficent, and mercurial it may have been. And he’s not likely to mend his despicable ways.

These are the selfsame whores who kissed Trump’s fat ass, defended him unreservedly, and forced themselves to praise him effusively (and offensively) for their own political advantage just as long as he seemed to have his hand tightly around the GOP’s collectively vulnerable scrotum. But now that his grip is relaxed, however involuntarily, the poor scumbag is a pariah, a leper, an untouchable.

Virtually all Republicans of any moment are now dissing their former savior. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, to be sure. But the GOP’s hagfish are showing the world how spineless, unprincipled, self-serving, and slimy they really are. My apologies to hagfish.

What goes around comes around . . .