It’s unfortunately understandable that the Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence by a 51-47 vote. After all, he wasn’t nearly as much of a mutt as most Trump appointees, and was far better than monumentally unqualified real estate nepo baby, Bill Pulte, whom Trump made Acting DNI even though the law would have the deputy assume the acting position in the absence of a confirmed nominee.

There was some concern when Clayton showed he lacked the guts to tell the truth when asked who won the 2020 election, playing the “certified” card so as not to make his patron sad. But  while he lost any hope of bipartisan support, this didn’t prove to be a game changer for Republican senators. So what if Clayton didn’t possess the qualification for the job, extensive experience in national security. The Senate has long since gotten past such trivial concerns in confirming Trump nominees.

The same could be said for Todd Blanche, the nominee for Attorney General, except that two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, have drawn a line. Notably, Tillis has decided to walk away from the Senate, and Cornyn lost his primary after Trump backed Ken Paxton, whose own party impeached him as Texas Attorney General, such that neither had much to lose by removing certain body parts from Trump’s buttocks. They have made a demand of Blanche, asserting that their votes would be no absent satisfaction of their demand.

Cornyn, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.), a fellow Republican on the panel, have pushed the Department of Justice to renegotiate a settlement with President Trump to make it explicitly clear that the federal government will not establish a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate people who say they were unfairly prosecuted during the Biden administration.

Blanche, the acting attorney general, has repeatedly told senators that the proposed legal compensation fund, which was included as part of a settlement with Trump to settle Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, is dead and won’t be coming back.

But Cornyn has pointed out that Blanche has acknowledged that the proposed fund remains on paper as part of the settlement with Trump.

Cornyn has refused to vote to confirm until Blanche puts it in writing that the slush fund is dead. Blanche has refused to put it in writing, which largely makes Cornyn’s point for him. For his part, Tillis appears to be riding Cornyn’s coattails, after making his own demand that Blanche meet with the Epstein victims. Blanche then held a meeting, which was a bad faith, pointless sham held solely to sate Tillis’ demand. Apparently, that was good enough for Tillis.

Even with Cornyn’s limited demand that the absurdly-named “Anti-Weaponization Fund” written settlement be terminated in a writing, not to mention the Trump family IRS immunity which Blanche says remains a valid and viable settlement, even though voided by the court, much remains that could allow Blanche to make good on Trump’s desire to buy the love of the insurrectionists who put cops’ lives on the line to save him from humiliation.

The pardoned January 6 insurrectionists could still get paid off by way of the federal Tort Claims Act. Even if Blanche puts into writing that the slush fund is dead, it would have no impact on his approving settlements independent of the fund. Then again, even if he puts into writing that the $1.776 billion fund is eliminated, there is nothing to prevent a new future claim, settlement and fund. If Blanche was required to state, in writing, that the DoJ would make no payments to anyone convicted for January 6, without regard to the mechanism, that would be one thing. Blanche, however, won’t even put into writing that the slush fund is good and truly gone.

But all of this largely misses the real point here: Blanche is the person who approved of this in the first place. As DAG and Acting AG, Blanche thought it entirely proper to create this slush fund, to give immunity to Trump, his children, his companies, from IRS audit. Then there’s the Epstein files issue, but that seems to be off the radar as far as Tillis and Cornyn are concerned.

The focus of the pair of Republican senators who have shown some small degree of gumption in not collapsing in a paroxysm of Trump fealty has been on what Blanche specifically did rather than what was happening in Blanche’s head when he decided that slush funds, immunity deals and concealing co-conspirators while revealing victims reflected the path he thought best for an Attorney General.

It’s good that Cornyn and Tillis are showing any degree of independence at all. It’s unfortunate that their demands miss the point of why Todd Blanche is singularly unqualified to be AG. It’s not just what he did, but that he would do something so corrupt and nefarious at all. If it’s not this slush fund, this immunity, this prosecution of Trump’s enemies, it will be something else similarly wrong. And Cornyn and Tillis know this, but just can’t seem to muster the courage to just say no.