THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Just because there is a loose cannon in the White House there is no need yet for any legislation protecting the special counsel conducting the investigation into his crimes. At least that is what the Republican Senators who co-sponsored the bill last spring now say.

Republicans who co-authored an effort to bar President Donald Trump from firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller now say they don’t see the need right now for their initiative — even after the convictions of Trump’s former campaign manager and personal lawyer.

Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Wednesday that they won’t push for passage of their the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act.

“I’ll let you know if I feel like I need to” move to have that bill considered, Graham said.

“If I felt it needed to be, I would do it. I am firmly in the camp of, let Mueller do his job,” he said.

The bill won approval in the Republican-led judiciary committee in April, but top GOP leaders are not considering bringing the legislation and it does not have the support of 60 senators, a Tillis spokesman said.

Graham and Tillis authored legislation with Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

After the convictions of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, and Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, in separate cases, Coons called on the Senate to take up the measure which would bar the president from dismissing Mueller without cause.

“It is past time for the full Senate to vote on it,” Coons said.

Manafort, who ran Trump’s campaign for part of his 2016 presidential run, was convicted of eight felony charges related to tax evasion and bank fraud. Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, pleaded guilty to eight counts. He implicated Trump as directing payments to two women before the election to keep them from going public with stories about affairs.

“That is a striking level of criminality by individuals close to the President,” Coons said in a statement. “Both prosecutions arose from the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump continues to criticize Mueller and his team and to threaten their ongoing investigation.”

Under the bill, a fired special counsel could request a judicial review of his firing, and a judicial panel could reinstate the special counsel if his firing was not done for just cause. The bill includes a retroactive clause, which would apply to any special counsel appointed after Jan. 1, 2017 and removed before the bill was enacted.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., voted for the measure in committee. Despite some constitutional questions about the bill, Flake said he’d like to see if get a vote on the Senate floor. He doesn’t expect that to happen.

“Doubt it, but I’d like to see it,” Flake said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has repeatedly said he does not see a need for the bill.

“I don’t think he should fire Mueller and I don’t think he is going to. This is a piece of legislation that’s not necessary in my judgment,” McConnell told Fox’s Neil Cavuto in April. His staff pointed to the statement when asked Wednesday about McConnell’s current thinking on the issue.

Democrats, though, saw a new, pressing need to protect Mueller.

“The Congress of the United States has to protect the special counsel,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Senate Judiciary Committee member, told CNN.

Some say that Putin has managed to turn key Senators like Lindsey Graham to keep his boy Donald in the White House. Certainly they are getting discrete financial assistance from Russia but I believe they are in the thrall of a more intoxicating drug, Power. If the impeach Trump they wil surely lose power and office and likely end up being prosecuted themselves. They stand to lose too much to let go of Dannemora Donny's Big Red Tie.