Washington - We have a national emergency, all right. Its name is Donald Trump, and it is a force of mindless, pointless disruption.
The president's decision to officially declare an emergency -- to pretend to build an unbuildable border wall -- is not only an act of constitutional vandalism. It is also an act of cowardice, a way to avoid the wrath of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the far-right commentariat.
It is an end-run around Congress and, as such, constitutes a violation of his oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" -- which gives Congress, not the president, the authority to decide how public money is spent.