Will McConnell Do to Trump What Howe Did to Thatcher?

The possibility that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell might choose in the end to eviscerate Donald Trump instantly put me in mind of an only slightly less dramatic event in British politics — when, in 1990, a man long perceived as a weak and cringing loyalist stood up in the House of Commons and calmly murdered Margaret Thatcher.

Sir Geoffrey Howe was Thatcher’s deputy prime minister and former foreign secretary and chancellor of the exchequer. He and the prime minister had disagreed for years over Thatcher’s hostility to the European Union. Throughout, she blithely ignored his objections and those of other colleagues, letting the public know that she cared nothing for their views. When she finally told other EU leaders that Britain would never adopt the euro, he resigned, and his resignation speech to Parliament caused a sensation. An exhausted party suddenly turned on Thatcher and within weeks she faced a leadership contest and was out.