One of the dangers of introducing any new weapon is that your opponents will copy it and turn it back on you. The modern use of a chemical weapon, the choking agent chlorine, was pioneered by the Kaiser’s army near Ypres, Belgium. The British howled about the inhumanity of it all but scarcely five months later were trying–somewhat incompetently–to gas Germans at Loos, Belgium. The same can be said of President Trump’s penchant for actively trolling political opponents. For instance, a couple of weeks ago he went after retiring Tennessee Senator Bob Corker.

Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2017

…Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2017

Isn't it sad that lightweight Senator Bob Corker, who couldn't get re-elected in the Great State of Tennessee, will now fight Tax Cuts plus!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2017

Corker responded

It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning.

— Senator Bob Corker (@SenBobCorker) October 8, 2017

Some chuckles but Corker also drew fire from advocates of the aged who didn’t like the comparison. Now he’s taken it further. He’s using an entire Senate committee to engage in a lengthy troll of Trump.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, will hold a hearing on the president’s authority to launch a nuclear attack, he said on Wednesday.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold the “long overdue” discussion on the “executive’s authority to use nuclear weapons and the process for executing that authority,” on Nov. 14, Corker said.

It will be the first time since 1976 that the committee, which Corker currently chairs, or their counterparts in the House, “have looked specifically at the authority and process for using nuclear weapons,” his statement reads.

“A number of members both on and off our committee have raised questions about the authorities of the legislative and executive branches with respect to war making, the use of nuclear weapons, and conducting foreign policy overall,” Corker said.

Realistically, what does this hearing hope to accomplish? From a policy standpoint, damned little. The Foreign Relations Committee doesn’t have jurisdiction over the manufacture, deployment or use of nuclear weapons. Even if it did, it can’t dictate policy and procedures to the executive branch. There won’t be enough votes to pass anything Corker comes up with into law and, if there were the votes to pass a bill, the odds of Trump agreeing to sign such a bill can be measured in negative numbers. But if one is trying for a RevengeTroll^TM, then this is gold:

This is what scares me most: when Trump knows Mueller is closing in, he'll start a war to change the subject. https://t.co/v2e0lkHa9T

— Amy Siskind 🏳️‍🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) November 9, 2017

https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/928613142988550144

NEW: GOP Sen Bob Corker will hold an SFRC hearing Nov 14 on the president’s authority to use nuclear weapons. Wowsers. pic.twitter.com/0cYr1kFlpS

— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) November 9, 2017

Corker to hold hearing to probe Trump's "authority to use nuclear weapons," significantly escalating a war of words. https://t.co/VB0It4nJqZ

— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) November 9, 2017

Q: Outgoing Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker announced a hearing for next week on the president's executive authority to use nuclear weapons, what are the implications of a hearing like that? @ZekeJMiller on Red & Blue: "This is one of those 'YOLO' moments for him. He doesn't care." pic.twitter.com/2cbZ35R0r1

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 9, 2017

Republican Senator Bob Corker to hold ‘long overdue’ Senate Foreign Relations hearing on mentally deranged despot Trump’s authority to use nuclear weapons https://t.co/BwnnqWz9PD #maddow @maddow #lastword @lawrence

— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) November 9, 2017

This is not the way a mature society should work. Just as Gresham’s Law states that bad money drives good money out of circulation, bad behavior drives good behavior out of the public square. What Corker is doing here actually shows a lot less maturity than Trump. He’s not content with beclowning himself on Twitter, he’s dragging an entire Senate committee into the scrum with him.