James Comey

FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

At least Richard Nixon had the decency to wait until the weekend.

On Tuesday night, just before the first pitch in second game of the Beltway Series between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, President Donald Trump shredded whatever remained of the independence of the Department of Justice.

The nation's 45th president unceremoniously sacked embattled FBI Director James Comey, who arguably handed Trump the White House last November. He joined former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who got hurled onto the scrap heap when she defied the Reality Star-Chief.

Almost immediately, veteran Washington hands were raising the spectre of the "Saturday Night Massacre" of October 1973, when President Nixon fired his attorney general and his deputy after they refused to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

"This is Nixonian," U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said in a statement released seemingly moments after the news of Comey's firing sent official Washington into a tailspin.

The news enraged Democrats - who accused Trump of running roughshod over the separation of powers - and Republicans, who were furious they got no advance news of the dismissal.

Casey continued, calling on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to "immediately appoint a special counsel to continue the Trump/Russia investigation."

Comey, remember, said back on March 20 that he'd been "authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts."

Writing on Twitter, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, R-Ore., a Comey critic, nonetheless called Comey's firing "outrageous."

Wyden didn't spare the rod. He called for an appointment of a special counsel, adding that "the president would do well to remember that, in America, the truth always comes out."

It's tempting to think that Comey, who was set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, was just about to stumble onto something major in the Russia connection when he got the hook.

Reminder: Fired FBI Director Comey was scheduled to testify before Senate Intel on Thursday (h/t @MariannaNBCNews): pic.twitter.com/32l2llhtoQ — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) May 9, 2017

Certainly, Comey wasn't helped when it was revealed that he'd mishandled the probe of Democrat Hillary Clinton's emails during the presidential campaign.

But that was a mere fig leaf - a Russian bear shaped shadow hung over the whole matter.

In a speech from the Senate floor, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the investigation of the Russia connection was in danger.

"Any attempt to stop or undermine this FBI investigation would raise grave constitutional issues," Durbin said.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Rosenstein to hire an independent counsel to continue the Russia probe. If he didn't "every American will rightly suspect that the decision to fire Director Comey was part of a cover-up."

Strong words to be sure. And they're obviously coming from a seriously partisan place in a seriously partisan town. But they' re still worth considering.

Trump, meanwhile is headed into uncharted waters. Who he taps as Comey's replacement will speak volumes.

And autocratic and used to uttering "You're fired" to anyone defies him, the president who imagines himself a presidential scholar might do well to study what happened to Nixon after that Saturday night in 1973.

Things only got worse.

Much, much worse.