This was the week that Todd Blanche's blind loyalty to Donald Trump finally caught up with him. His prosecution of political opponents wasn't enough to cost him the confidence of Senate Republicans. His attacks on our elections did nothing to tarnish his image within the GOP.

It was only after he refused to sign a document unequivocally stating that Trump's weaponization slush fund was legally null and void that his ascendancy to attorney general was stopped.

Even then, it was only because two retiring U.S. senators — John Cornyn and Thom Tillis — drew that line and wouldn't back down. Alleged moderate Susan Collins has remained silent on the nomination. Lisa Murkowski is supposedly undecided.

Blanche represents a familiar pattern in the second Trump term. Nominees with traditional resumes are given the benefit of the doubt by people who should know better. They advance, only to later reveal themselves as more competent, but no less committed, members of Trump's inner circle.

Trump's first pick for attorney general was disgraced former Congressman Matt Gaetz. When he withdrew, Trump nominated Pam Bondi, the former Attorney General of Florida.

Elites and the legacy media swooned. They justified their support for Bondi based on her resume and the simple fact that she wasn't Gaetz.

In one infamous editorial, the Washington Post placed her picture inside a green circle with a green thumbs-up beside it: "Florida's former attorney general is qualified," the Post wrote. "Lawyers who have worked with her report that she is serious."

Within weeks of being sworn in, Bondi was overseeing litigation to deny birthright citizenship, deport migrants to a Salvadoran gulag, and cover up the Epstein files. As her tenure continued, she added attacks on free and fair elections and the prosecution of Trump's political opponents to her resume. By the time she was fired, her reputation was in tatters.

Those who once believed she'd defend the rule of law either fell silent or became vocal critics. Even many of her MAGA supporters had abandoned her.

From that mess emerged Todd Blanche. Like Bondi, Blanche looked the part of a responsible lawyer. He was a former federal prosecutor in the prestigious Southern District of New York and had been a partner at one of New York City's most exclusive law firms.

When his nomination to be deputy attorney general was pending in the Senate, a bipartisan group of former Justice Department officials signed a letter supporting his confirmation.

A separate letter, from more than 100 former Assistant U.S. Attorneys who had worked with Blanche in the Southern District of New York, touted his "experience, character, intellect, openness to dialogue, and longstanding love of and belief in the mission of the DOJ."

Recently, one of that letter's signatories offered a blunter explanation: "Compared to possible options at the time, he seemed like a relatively sane one." Clearly, Blanche is not.

This is the fallacy that repeats itself over and over. It's why Bondi was praised by the legacy media. It's why Blanche attracted bipartisan support from former federal prosecutors.

More recently, it's the reason Jay Clayton was seen as a better choice for Director of National Intelligence than Bill Pulte.

Those in positions to know better keep letting Trump define deviance. They evaluate who is the lesser of two evils, without recognizing that in this calculation, both options are evil.

They favor Trump appointees like Bondi, Blanche, Clayton and Rubio because they mistakenly believe pedigree and resume make these individuals more reasonable. What they fail to account for is that all of Trump's cabinet members, regardless of pedigree, have been forced to abandon independent judgment.

To serve in Trump's administration is to serve Trump personally. It requires a willingness to humiliate oneself for his amusement and debase oneself for his self-enrichment. In sum, men like Blanche must prove their absolute loyalty to Trump every single day, in every possible way.

That's why Todd Blanche shouldn't be in government and certainly shouldn't be attorney general. It's not because of one slush fund, one lie or one ethical breach. It's the fact that he will do literally anything Trump asks of him.

But the fault doesn't rest with Trump alone. While Blanche and the Senate Republicans who've enabled him deserve the largest share of the blame, they aren't alone.

Responsibility is shared by everyone who continues to enable this through moral relativism and both-sides coverage. Every person who signed one of those letters bears some responsibility. As do the media outlets that portrayed Bondi and Blanche as somehow better than Gaetz.

In the end, the lesson isn't that Trump keeps finding worse people to nominate — it's that anyone who serves him faithfully enough, however polished their resume, ends up the same. Until the people and institutions that keep grading on that curve stop doing so, this cycle will keep repeating itself.