I don’t know why I’m bothering to write this. Maybe it’s therapeutic. Maybe there’s some tiny, delusional part of me that believes one of you might suddenly wake up, remember you’re a United States senator and locate your spine. I don’t know. But apparently I need to get this out of my system, so here we are.

What I genuinely cannot understand is where this almost supernatural level of loyalty to Donald Trump is coming from.

Look, I understand fear of being primaried. I understand wanting to keep your seat. I understand political self-preservation. I don’t admire any of it, but at least I can follow the logic.

But what happens when that explanation is gone?

What happens when you’re retiring? Or Trump already primaried you? Or you already lost?

And you’re STILL doing it.

That’s where you lose me.

Because at that point, guys, I’m running out of explanations that make you look better.

This is a man who has shown time and again that he would throw any one of you under a moving bus if it bought him three extra minutes before the bus came for him. You know that. We know that. The bus knows that.

So what exactly is keeping all of you in line?

Which brings me to Todd Blanche.

This should not be a difficult one, guys.

Before we even get to his confirmation hearing, can we talk about the fact that Blanche previously said that if Trump decided he didn’t want him as Attorney General and sent him off to do something else, his response would basically be:

“Thank you very much. I love you, Sir.”

I’m sorry. What?

I’m not sure “I love you, Sir” is the vibe we should be looking for from the Attorney General of the United States.

And frankly, it’s weird coming from his personal lawyer.

But okay.

Then we get to the confirmation hearing, where Democrats are already questioning whether Blanche can separate his role as Attorney General from his previous role representing Donald Trump personally. Durbin even brings up the “I love you, Sir” comment.

Enter Republican Senator John Kennedy, who was not exactly conducting the Spanish Inquisition. He asked Blanche:

“Are you and President Trump friends?”

And Blanche responds:

“I’m his lawyer,” before quickly correcting himself. “Was his lawyer.”

Oh, COME ON?!

At that point, we’re no longer talking about a Freudian slip. We’re talking about a Freudian base jump. Freud himself would have risen from the grave, grabbed his notebook and said, “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Even I think that one’s a little obvious.”

Quick civics refresher, because apparently we need one: the Attorney General is NOT the president’s personal lawyer. We already have a job for that. It’s called the president’s personal lawyer.

The Attorney General is supposed to represent the interests of the United States.

So when the guy auditioning to run the Department of Justice accidentally tells you who he thinks his client is, maybe believe him.

And then there’s Epstein. You know, that tiny little obscure issue nobody in America seems to have an opinion about.

Poll after poll shows Americans overwhelmingly want transparency and want the files released. Republicans want them released. Democrats want them released. Independents want them released. Apparently we finally found something Americans can agree on.

And now Senate Republicans are preparing to confirm as Attorney General one of, if not arguably the central figure, in DOJ’s mishandling of the release of the Epstein files.

You really couldn’t write this shit.

Epstein survivors themselves have urged senators not to confirm him.

So I have a really simple question:

Who, esteemed Republican senators, exactly are you representing with this vote?

Because it doesn’t appear to be your constituents.

Oh, wait.

Whatever.

Collins and Murkowski say they’re voting no. Lovely. If they actually vote no, I’ll give them credit, but forgive me if I don’t organize the parade just yet.

And then there are Tillis, Cornyn and Cassidy, which is where this whole “they’re just afraid of being primaried” explanation really starts falling apart.

Let’s start with Thom Tillis.

Tillis, you looked at Trump’s massive domestic policy bill, concluded that its Medicaid provisions would hurt the people of North Carolina, and you stood up and voted against it.

Trump immediately threatened to primary you, and the next day you announced you weren’t running again.

Honestly, Thom, glad to see you stand up and fight for what you believe in.

Your follow-through needs work.

Because you already did the hard part. You stood up to Trump. He threatened your political career. And your response was essentially, Fine, then I won’t have one.

Alrighty!

So what are you protecting now?

You’re retiring. There is no Trump primary left for you to survive. And yet here you are, still falling in line when it comes to Blanche.

Thom, you made it all the way out of the burning building and then apparently thought, “You know what? I should probably go back in.”

No.

Keep walking.

And then there’s John Cornyn.

John, you didn’t even get the option of walking out of the burning building.

Trump threw you out the window.

He backed Ken Paxton against you, and you lost your primary.

Ken Paxton.

A man considered so spectacularly corrupt, ethically compromised and generally appalling that, honestly, he does feel like the perfect Trump pick for this particular moment.

And now Paxton is in a dead heat against James Talarico, a Christian who appears to have actually read the part about what Jesus taught, rather than simply using Christianity as a campaign logo.

If Talarico pulls this off, Texas will have elected its first Democratic senator since 1988.

So if Donald Trump’s need to punish John Cornyn ultimately helps Democrats flip a Texas Senate seat for the first time in nearly four decades, I suppose we owe him a fruit basket.

Thanks for your help with Texas. Couldn’t have done it without you.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh, right. John.

Trump helped take your job.

That thing Republican senators are supposedly terrified he might do to them?

HE ALREADY DID IT TO YOU.

And you’re still falling in line.

John.

What are you protecting?

Which brings us to Bill Cassidy.

Oh, Bill.

You were one of only seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump after January 6th.

You actually had the balls to hold him accountable.

And honestly, whatever else happened in your political career, that was something you could have carried with you for the rest of your life with pride.

When it mattered, I did the right thing.

That’s not nothing.

But apparently you couldn’t just leave it there.

Along came RFK Jr.

YOU’RE A DOCTOR, BILL.

You knew exactly who RFK was. You knew his history with vaccines. You grilled him about it. You clearly had serious concerns about putting this man in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services.

And then you voted for him anyway.

Now, obviously I can’t crawl inside your head, but I can only imagine some part of that political calculation was, Okay, maybe I can get back on Trump’s good side. Maybe giving him RFK makes up for that whole voting-to-convict-him-after-January-6th thing.

Nope.

Because apparently you misunderstood the assignment.

Voting against RFK would have pissed Trump off. Sure. He would have called you a RINO, posted something unhinged about you at 2:17 in the morning and eventually found somebody else.

But January 6th?

You voted to convict HIM.

That was personal.

And if we’ve learned literally anything about Donald Trump, it’s that you can disagree with him on policy and occasionally survive.

But embarrass Donald Trump?

Reject Donald Trump?

Hold Donald Trump personally accountable?

Oh, Bill.

That shit goes in the scrapbook.

So you gave him RFK.

RFK went on to do many of the very things you were worried he would do.

And did Trump say, You know what, Bill? Water under the bridge. We’re good now?

Nope.

He backed Julia Letlow against you anyway.

You lost your primary anyway.

Because he never forgave you anyway.

And now, after ALL OF THAT, and the deep suspicion you still have about the supposedly “dead” anti-weaponization grit, you’re still going to vote yes on Todd Blanche.

Bill.

How many times do we need to run this experiment?

You’re a physician. At some point the sample size is sufficient.

Which brings me back to where I started.

Tillis is retiring.

Cornyn lost his primary.

Cassidy lost his primary.

The explanation was supposed to be that Republican senators fall in line because they’re terrified Trump will end their political careers.

Okay.

He did.

Or, in Tillis’s case, he threatened to and Tillis headed for the exit himself.

So I have to ask the three of you again:

What exactly are you afraid of?

Because I’ve been assuming this whole thing is about political survival. Reelection. Primaries. Trump turning MAGA against you. Losing your committee chair. Losing your seat. All the normal things politicians are afraid of.

I don’t particularly respect that explanation, but at least I understand it.

Except now, for these three men, that explanation has expired.

And yet…

Here we are.

Now, I’m not a conspiracy theorist. I have absolutely no evidence that Donald Trump has some mysterious file cabinet labeled SHIT I HAVE ON REPUBLICAN SENATORS, and I’m not claiming that he does.

But guys.

Help me out here.

Because when the obvious explanation stops making sense and the behavior continues anyway, people are naturally going to start wondering what the hell the explanation actually is.

I’m not saying there’s a duck.

I’m just saying something over there is waddling, quacking and making an awful lot of duck-related noise.

Maybe there’s a perfectly innocent explanation.

Tell us.

Because “I’m afraid he’ll primary me” stops working after he already fucking primaried you.

So Bill, Thom, John, prove me wrong.

Show us that this really was just ordinary political cowardice.

Which is a truly bizarre thing to find myself rooting for, but apparently “they’re merely cowards” is now the comforting explanation.

And here’s the ridiculous part.

After all of this, some stupid little optimistic part of me is still waiting for one of you to surprise me.

I’m waiting for the John McCain thumbs-down moment.

One senator who everybody assumes is going to fall in line, who walks onto that floor and simply says:

No.

I know we’re probably not getting it. I know.

Jesus Christ, it sucks to be an optimist.

But come on, guys.

One of you.

I’m not asking you to become Democrats. God forbid.

I’m asking one of you to remember that you are a United States senator in a separate and coequal branch of government and that “advice and consent” does not mean “Whatever you say, sir.”

One of you could decide:

No. Not this one.

Thom, you already made it out of the building.

John and Bill, Trump already threw you out of it.

Stop trying to get back inside.

There’s nothing in there for you.

For the love of God, guys.

RUN TOWARD THE FUCKING LIGHT.

I was in my mid-thirties. I’d recently finished my master’s degree, been promoted, and I’d been eyeballing a Louis Vuitton Speedy for months.

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Here is the frustrating part. You almost certainly cannot create those moments from the outside.

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That question, as understandable as it is, is the wrong one.

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I want to start with a moment most of us have experienced.

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Sydney Sweeney recently launched her own lingerie line via a social media campaign, complete with a photo spread and an accompanying interview, which, at the very least, suggested some optimism about the audience’s priorities.

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I am midway through the marathon ordeal of trying to get tickets to see Harry Styles at his 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden, which is how I, a middle-aged strategy professor with multiple advanced degrees, found myself whisper-threatening a laptop at 11:43 a.m. on a w…

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Every American is taught about the Boston Massacre.

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An…

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Let us talk about work.

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Alexander Hamilton: All right. Let us begin where this actually began. With the boats.

James Madison: Not stopped.

John Jay: Not searched.

Hamilton: Destroyed.

Madison: Destroyed.

Jay: And the people in them.

(pause)

Hamilton: Yes. The boats and the people in them were de…

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I am heartbroken by the news about Rob Reiner and his wife.

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By Publius (Dragged Back Into Service), December 2025

A Preface to the Reader

When we drafted your Constitution, we assumed each branch of government would behave like a sensible adult.

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• The president would execute laws.

• And the Supreme Cou…

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