Democratic and Republican Senators forming power-play alliances against Donald Trump on Russia

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/democratic-and-republican-senators-forming-power-play-alliances-against-donald-trump-on-russia/1941/

Has the fundamental threat to democracy posed by the unhinged Donald Trump and his Russian conspiracy finally pushed the United States Senate into a post-partisan landscape? Hard to believe, but take a look at the latest developments out of the Senate. Just look who’s suddenly invoking whose name for cover, who’s suddenly making a point of standing next to whom, and you begin to see the cross-party power-play alliances that are now emerging.

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham are the ranking members on the Judiciary Crime and Terrorism subcommittee, but when have you ever so much as heard their names in the same sentence? Yet suddenly Graham and Whitehouse are inseparable. Why? Because they’re both pissed off that Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has been stonewalling them on the answers they’ve been seeking about his phony wiretap claims.

And so this Democrat and Republican have aligned for a power play whose motivations couldn’t be more clear: they know they may end up having to subpoena the evidence they seek. And when you start subpoenaing evidence about the president, you’re going to have to make the case to the American public that these extraordinary moves are justified.

But these two give each other cover, you see. It’s why they keep mentioning each other’s names, to remind the public that this is bigger than either one of them. No one can accuse Whitehouse of going after Trump for partisan reasons, so long as he keeps pointing out that he’s acting in concert with Graham. And no one can tell Graham to simply bow down to his own party’s leader in the White House, as long as he keeps pointing out that Whitehouse won’t back down even if he does. And they’re not the only such alliance.