Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee say they want to act on a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III — even if Majority Leader Mitch McConnell essentially killed it by saying it won’t make it to the floor.

They then spoke to the natural follow-up question: Why bother?

“I answered this question I’ll bet about 10 times,” Chairman Charles E. Grassley told the committee Thursday. “The press is always trying to put us between me and the president, or me and the majority leader. I don’t care to be put in the middle of anything.

“I just plan on doing the work this committee ought to do, and how do you get things done?” the Iowa Republican said. “You get it done by moving slow paced through the various steps you go to get there.”

Grassley said he “gave his word” to the sponsors of two bills, first introduced in August, that he would set a vote if they came up with a bipartisan compromise. He announced that motivation “just in case anybody in the leadership of the Republican Party of the U.S. Senate or even on this committee” wonders why the compromise measure was still on the agenda and on pace for a vote next Thursday.