Jennifer Rubin at the Post on McConnell & Co’s reluctance to “poke the bear”:

Let’s cut through all this: Republicans are petrified of provoking Trump (“the bear”), whom they treat as their supervisor and not as an equal branch of government. The notion that Congress should not take out an insurance policy to head off a potential constitutional crisis when the president has repeatedly considered firing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein defies logic. By speaking up in such fashion, McConnell is effectively tempting Trump to fire one or both of them. That will set off a firestorm and bring calls for the president’s impeachment.

Or. McConnell must be hoping, it will bring unmistakable authoritarian rule and a forced end to all this mishegoss.

At critical points during this saga, McConnell has put party over country, and fidelity to the executive branch over the concerns of an equal legislative branch. Remember, according to multiple news reports, McConnell is the one who, before the 2016 election, wanted to water down a bipartisan warning to the country about Russian interference. It was McConnell, together with Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who refused to set up a select committee or an independent commission to address possible Russian collusion. It was McConnell who pushed through the confirmation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, despite ample evidence that he had not been truthful with the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding his contacts with Russians. His refusal to consider legislation that might head off a crisis is remarkably reckless.

And for what? Is he thinking this will make the Republicans stronger? If so, does he know something we don’t? Or is it just that he’s not thinking, he’s simply tribalizing.

There is no one — with the possible exceptions of Ryan and House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) — who has done more to embolden Trump. Seeing no opposition, Trump has continued his crusade to intimidate and bully the Justice Department and the FBI. As Trump has trashed one democratic norm after another, McConnell has remained silent.

Immediate advantage everything, long term consequences nothing. It’s a big gamble but by god it just might work.

Put aside the Russia investigation for a moment. McConnell hasn’t said boo about Trump’s foreign emoluments, his grotesque conflicts of interest, or the nepotism and self-enrichment that are endemic to his administration. If a Democrat [were] in the White House, McConnell would be leading the inquests into wrongdoing and cheering for impeachment.

Someone exactly like Trump couldn’t get elected as a Democrat, though, because things that are just added ornaments to Republicans would be deal-breakers for Dems. One thing Trump is doing is laying utter waste to the notion that Republicans have the lock on Morality.