If not this, what?  If not now, when?  The adults in the Republican Party better have a plan.  Because pretending that they’d never have to deal with “Trump Fires Mueller” headlines just became a quaint, and obsolete notion. He tried once.  What’s to stop a second attempt?  The New York Times reported Trump did indeed, despite repeated denials, try to oust Robert Mueller back in June, but backed down when his legal counsel threatened to resign over it.

Legislation has been floating around for months in Congress that would protect Mueller.  But senior Republicans have never really taken it seriously, hoping what was reported Thursday night would never happen.  So, now what?

Congressional Democrats are pushing one measure that would prevent presidents from firing special counsels unless a panel of three federal judges agreed.  Another bill would allow a fired special counsel to appeal his case to federal judges.  Neither has gained much traction because Republicans say, Trump and the White House are cooperating with Mueller.

This is the fourth time Trump has tried to fire a top surrogate only to back down.

• Trump threatened to fire Jeff Sessions after the Attorney General recused himself from the Russia investigation
• The President threatened to fire FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe because of his ties to former director James Comey, whom Trump also pressured before dismissing him.
• According to CNN, Trump has also threatened to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller investigation into Russian election meddling.

Despite all the political maneuverings, let’s not forget the elephant in the room.  Namely, if this doesn’t feel like obstruction of justice, what does?  Fire the investigator and the investigation goes away.  According to this from Slate, the obstruction case is getting solid.

“Look back over the Russia investigation, and you’ll see this pattern: Trump constantly sought control. In January 2017, he told Comey that he expected loyalty. A month later, Trump tried to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself. Later, Trump fired Comey and rebuked Sessions for failing to protect Trump from the investigation. In July, Trump drew a red line around his personal finances and signaled to Mueller that he had better not cross that line. And in August, Trump called up members of Congress to derail legislation that would impede him from firing Mueller.”

Meanwhile, imagine all this happening in the Obama era.  Republicans would have stormed the White House gates over such behavior.  Now, those complicit in this madness whistle past the graveyard, as Joe Scarborough writes in The Washington Post:

“Not so long ago, Republican leaders prided themselves on protecting middle-American minds from the liberal intellectual rot being spread by politicians and college professors they viewed as being hostile to law enforcement, contemptuous of constitutional traditions, indifferent to personal morality and accommodating to Russian tyrants. They claimed to be the intellectual heirs of Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley Jr. Now those same politicians debase themselves daily in service to Trump.”