Representative Ro Khanna seems to be following one of James Carville's pithy bits of political advice: "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son-of-a-bitch an anvil." Khanna announced that today he would be introducing a resolution in the House which would force the Trump administration to release all the remaining files on Jeffrey Epstein.

Which is pretty funny, if you've been following this whole MAGA-centric soap opera story arc. This is because the best thing about Democrats gleefully fanning the flames of all this MAGA angst is that it's so ridiculously ironic. Donald Trump (and plenty of others on the right) fed the flames of this conspiracy theory while campaigning, since it blended in so well with the whole QAnon lunacy. Cabals of pedophiles (mostly Democrats, of course) were in charge of the Deep State and their shadowy workings were manipulated by Jeffrey Epstein, who provided underage girls to satisfy their lusts while filming them and then blackmailing them. It all fit! It made so much (QAnon) sense! And then to shut him up, the Clintons (or maybe some other Democrat, who knows?) had Epstein murdered in his jail cell, cleverly staging it as a suicide.

There were no actual facts to back any of this up, of course. Bill Clinton had flown on Epstein's plane, but then again so had Donald Trump (who was best buddies with Epstein back in the 1980s, in fact). There was no "client list," just Epstein's phone book. There was no evidence whatsoever for the "murdered in his cell" part of it. But that didn't stop the MAGA world from buying into the conspiracy wholeheartedly.

Then Trump took office again, and appointed people to head the Department of Justice and the F.B.I. who were full-on believers of the whole "Epstein files" conspiracy theory. And they went digging with a passion, so they could reveal the whole cover-up to the world. But they didn't find anything, because there was nothing to find. Which they sheepishly admitted, over the 4th of July weekend. And MAGA world has been in a tizzy ever since.

Which is where the irony comes in. And where we feel compelled to use another pithy saying, this one not from James Carville but rather from William Shakespeare (from Hamlet): "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petard."

The French word pétard means, literally, "a fart," but that's not how it is being used here (although it certainly is amusing, in an elementary-school-age kind of way, to picture someone farting so hard it actually blew them off the ground). A pétard was actually a small bomb, first developed in the late 1500s for siege warfare. In modern terms, it would be called a "satchel bomb" -- bigger than a hand grenade, but still small and light enough that one person could carry it and set it up, to blow up a gate or a wall or other fortification. The crude name came from the sound it made, which (to 1500s Frenchmen) apparently sounded like a fart.

Being hoist by your own petard means somehow either the thing malfunctioned (the fuse going off early, for instance) or by your own incompetence you were somehow still in the vicinity of the bomb when it went off. So you were "hoist" (past tense of "hoise" -- tossed into the air) by your own bomb, in a poetic-justice sort of way. In the Epstein brouhaha, it might be better put as: "Live by the conspiracy theory, die by the conspiracy theory."

Trump has painted himself into a corner on this one. Since his followers fervently believe that the conspiracy is true, then (by their logic) there is nothing to stop Attorney General Pam Bondi or the head of the F.B.I., Kash Patel, from just releasing all the files. Putting out a "nothing to see here... move along..." letter on a holiday weekend was definitely not what the MAGA crowd had been waiting for.

Trump has been trying to calm everyone down, but has not been having much success. In any conspiracy theory involving a big cover-up, when someone in power tells you: "There really is nothing to see here, you are believing a big lie," then they automatically become part of the conspiracy. The reaction isn't: "Oh, thank you for letting us know we have been mistakenly believing a lie," instead it is: "Obviously, they got to you!" Pam Bondi is currently playing this role, in their eyes.

But back to that anvil. In the midst of this fracas, which has set MAGA against MAGA in their biggest internecine spat yet, Representatives Ro Khanna and Mark Veasey decided to have some fun, by poking the bear with a big stick:

"Why are the Epstein files still hidden? Who are the rich & powerful being protected?" Khanna wrote on social media Sunday while announcing his plans. A vote would "put every Congress member on record" about making the files public, he continued.

. . .

Khanna's office shared the amendment Monday with HuffPost. It would be attached to a cryptocurrency bill coming under review by the House Rules Committee on Tuesday. If passed, it would force Bondi to "retain, preserve, and compile any records" related to the Epstein case and release them to the public within 30 days of the bill's passage.

Rep. Mark Veasey (D-Texas) also announced on social media that he'll be introducing a resolution Monday demanding the release of the files.

"Either [President Donald Trump] and his acolytes fueled the rumors of the significance of these Epstein files to help his campaign, or something is there!" he wrote, suggesting the possibility of a cover-up.

This will put Republicans on the spot. Will they vote the way Trump wants them to, or the way the rabid MAGA base wants them to? That is a real pickle, for them. The measures likely won't make it to the floor, but at least the Republicans on the Rules Committee will have to cast a vote on the issue. There's another route to getting a bill on the floor, but it would require all Democrats and a handful of Republicans to essentially demand a vote over the objections of the speaker. This route is more complicated and takes longer, but even that would benefit Democrats -- because the longer this issue is kept alive (with MAGA at each other's throats) the better.

What are Republicans going to do? If they vote against releasing the Epstein files, they risk joining Pam Bondi in being seen as: "They got to you too!" If they vote for it, they risk drawing Trump further into the fray, but what is Trump going to do to them? Try to turn MAGA against House members that are doing exactly what MAGA wants them to do? That's a tough sell, even for Trump. Which is why it's a fairly brilliant move for Democrats to make, really. It's a lose-lose vote for Republicans that will do nothing more than prolong their agony as the MAGA conspiracy theorists howl. It's an anvil, plain and simple.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant