Some on the Left are waking up to the reality that impeaching Donald Trump (or attempting to, anyway) is bad strategy. The reason revolves around one person in particular: Mike Pence. Consider what Sen. Al Franken recently had to say about the vice president: “Pence ran the transition and some of the very worst nominees, I felt … were Pence selections, clearly, I think. He’s ideological, I consider him a zealot, and I think that in terms of a lot of domestic policy certainly would be worse than Trump.”

Franken’s critique is shared by a growing number of bewildered leftists who are just as wary of the person who would succeed Trump. Perhaps that’s why veteran Democrat leaders like Nancy Pelosi have urged restraint. She recently stated, “If you’re talking about impeachment, you’re talking about, what are the facts? … What are the rules that he may have violated? If you don’t have that case, you’re just participating in more hearsay.”

Pelosi’s statement was a subtle rebuke of colleagues like Maxine Waters, who more than anybody has advocated for Trump’s impeachment despite absolutely no evidence to warrant it. Democrats are stuck in a no-win situation. They’re chasing a Russian collusion conspiracy theory they hope implicates Trump. Yet even if they were to succeed (which they won’t), who waits in the wings? Mike Pence, a stalwart conservative. That’s proving to be an even tougher pill for the Party of Rage to swallow.