Looking backwards after more than a month, the firing of James Comey has blended into the larger pattern of scandal engulfing Donald Trump’s presidency. This may have been inevitable; in a sense, Trump’s decision to fire the FBI director was a single plot point in an unfolding saga. But the effect has been to obscure in our memories just how shocking that development was when it happened. Politics is full of surprises, but the Comey firing was truly astonishing.

It was also, politically speaking, a tactical mistake. Firing Comey precipitated the appointment of Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and thrust the White House into crisis.

But the unexpectedness of it may have had the mitigating effect of forcing members of Congress into partisan corners. Democrats, of course, were appalled by Trump’s decision, and used it to renew their calls for the appointment of a special counsel. Republicans, forced unexpectedly to choose between standing with the president and condemning him for a decision they had no say in, overwhelmingly toed the line that Trump had every right to fire the FBI director.

Against that backdrop, it is unnerving to see Trump loyalists not simply question Mueller’s independence for partisan purposes, but lay the groundwork for Trump to engineer his firing as well.

Republicans are delusional if they think the special counsel is going to be fair. Look who he is hiring.check fec reports. Time to rethink. — Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) June 12, 2017 Sessions never should've recused himself. Now that we know TRUMP IS NOT UNDER INVESTIGATION, Sessions should take it back & fire Mueller. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) June 12, 2017

It would be comforting to believe that Trump learned his lesson from the Comey firing. But the lesson he may have learned, from this, and so many other transgressions, is that time will dull the political consequences of all kinds of corruption, as long as Republicans in Congress lend their complicity to it.

