The Mueller coup bill which got out of the Senate Judiciary Committee has troubling implications even far beyond the politics of the moment.
The idea of an independent prosecutor has always been controversial. Far too much power has already shifted away to the unelected officials of the judiciary and away from officials elected by voters. Democrats turned on the idea after the Starr-Clinton era, but now they would like to make the special counsel into a permanent institution at the discretion of any friendly federal judge.
The bill doesn't just empower an endless coup effort by Mueller and his team of Clinton/Obama allies. It provides for a dramatic power shift. It allows DOJ figures and judicial allies to launch a permanent investigation, much like the one aimed at Trump, that turns into an endless witch hunt.
The Grassley amendment that was meant to provide some sort of limited check (but which never made it in) would have been little more than a face saving gesture. But even it couldn't be tolerated.
Meanwhile Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee couldn't take a consistent stand against either the Mueller coup effort or the Constitution.
Because this is a Constitutional issue.
There are three bodies. Not four or five.
The president is subject to removal by the voters and by congress. Not by holdovers from a previous administration.
And that's what endorsing the Mueller coup bill really means. It's an attack on the voters and on the Constitution.