Republican Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn are standing up to Donald Trump (for the time being, as of this writing) by successfully blocking the confirmation of Trump's attorney general nominee. Trump, in a snit, has now threatened to yank the nomination until next year, when both GOP senators will be gone. This might not be the smartest thing for Trump to do, since nobody knows how many Republicans and Democrats will be in the Senate after the midterm elections -- but when Trump gets in a snit, he often doesn't care what the smart thing to do is, instead preferring to do the most emotionally satisfying thing, no matter the consequences.

The problem could easily be resolved, since neither Tillis nor Cornyn have a huge issue with the nominee, Todd Blanche. They're not making some ideological stand, in other words. Instead they are objecting to the fishiness which still surrounds the Kabuki lawsuit that Trump brought against the I.R.S. The lawsuit was laughable from the get-go, since Trump is essentially suing himself -- he controls the I.R.S. and the Justice Department, after all.

The settlement agreement that came out of this sorry excuse for a lawsuit was a bridge too far for some Republicans in the Senate, since it consisted of two main parts, both of which are highly objectionable and self-dealing. The first part was a fund of almost $1.8 billion which would be used as a slush fund to pay off anyone Trump wished who had been (according to him) victimized by political persecution in the courts and the justice system. Obviously, Trump wanted to lavish large amounts of taxpayer money not just on his political cronies who had been convicted of serious crimes, but also on the 1,600 insurrectionists who laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Which, as noted, was a bridge too far for some Republicans (some of whom had been the ones under siege at the time).

The second part of the settlement was that Donald Trump and his entire extended family would be given a "Get out of jail free" card for any tax crimes ever committed. This was to include past, present, and future crimes, mind you. The entire Trump family was to be allowed to ignore all tax laws with full immunity for the rest of their lives. This, obviously, was not only self-dealing in the extreme, but downright odious.

The outcry over this settlement deal was fierce, and a lot of it came from Republicans. So Trump and the Justice Department were forced to back down on the slush fund... or at least they said they were backing down. Blanche, in a congressional hearing, stated: "We are not moving forward with the fund, period." When asked: "Not moving forward, ever?" Blanche replied: "Correct." However, he refused to put this promise in writing, which is a pretty fishy thing to do. And "we are not moving forward" is not technically the same thing as "the fund is dead, buried, and will never be resurrected." This instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the fund was merely lying dormant in Trump's mind, and would be revived at some future date.

This is what the biggest point of contention in the current standoff consists of. Cornyn is demanding an iron-clad promise that the fund is forever dead in writing from Blanche, before he will vote to confirm him in the Senate Judiciary Committee he sits on. He is also demanding in writing a clarification that Trump and his extended family will only be immune from tax laws in the past -- not into the future as well.

This should be a very easy thing for Blanche to do, obviously -- unless something is fishy about what he has promised in the past about the fund or the immunity. Which, knowing Trump and his minions, is a very valid thing to worry about. Even just calling it "fishy" is being polite.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was supposed to vote on advancing Blanche's nomination to the Senate floor this morning. But the vote was cancelled, because Blanche wouldn't commit to signing a simple statement that said what Cornyn wanted. Drafts were exchanged back and forth, but even when the two sides apparently reached an agreement, Trump blew it all up, according to Cornyn:

I'm happy to solve the problem. I thought we had solved it last night.... I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page. But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn't.

According to Cornyn and Tillis, they're not the only GOP senators who have a big problem with Blanche refusing to put his promises into writing. They are taking the lead in this fight precisely because they have nothing to lose by doing so -- neither one of them is going to be re-elected, so there's nothing Trump can use as leverage over them any more. But all it would need would be for Tillis and Cornyn to vote against the nomination in committee to kill it (Republicans hold a 12-10 advantage in the committee).

If the nomination is pulled, not much will change. Blanche will continue to be "acting attorney general," but without Senate confirmation. Trump's petulant threat is a pretty empty one, because there is no guarantee that he'll face better odds in the Senate after the midterms (indeed, Democrats even have a chance of regaining control of the chamber).

The entire thing boils down to Trump refusing to commit to what Blanche has already publicly promised. Which is why the whole thing reeks of fishiness. If Blanche does sign a commitment to killing the slush fund and not giving the entire Trump clan immunity forever from tax laws, then he will likely be quickly confirmed. Which makes Trump's refusal to allow that to happen even more fishy, when you get right down to it. Trump hates being forced to do things he doesn't want to do, or to back down from something he thought he had achieved, but this seems to go deeper than just petulance. Which just proves that Cornyn and Tillis are right to demand that all of Blanche's promises be put down in writing -- because that would put an end to the fishiness of the deal forever.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant