It was always highly conspicuous that the entire anti-Trump hoax industry began with something as unconventional as claiming he was a Russian agent. It was almost as if Democrats had concluded that the tried and tested sex scandal route was useless against Trump. To be fair, they did throw Stormy Daniels into the mix, but that had more to do with squeezing Michael Cohen than anything else. Then came Ukraine, which was essentially an extension of the Russia operation. Then came the classified documents saga, which grew directly out of the same Russia Russia universe. They eventually tried the bizarre New York civil case with the freakish woman, but even that failed to move the needle. So after more than a decade of Russia, Ukraine, impeachments, prosecutions, classified documents, civil cases, and just about every conceivable line of attack, watching them circle all the way back to an affair scandal feels almost comically desperate.