I am not a gambler. But if I were, I would always bet against congressional Republicans acting with integrity or demonstrating political courage. As Todd Blanche inches closer to shaking his “acting” title and becoming the permanent attorney general, that has never been more obvious.

Sadly, in the age of Donald Trump, the once-Grand Old Party has become synonymous with capitulation. A congressional party once led by powerful men like Senator Bob Dole and Speaker Joseph Cannon has been reduced to having Mike Johnson and John Thune in charge.

To say they are spineless is unfair to invertebrates — many of which at least have cartilage.

Yet the legacy media, intent on finding heroes where none exist and longing for false equivalency, refuses to learn this lesson.

In 2020, they heaped praise on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for refusing to do the impossible — find 11,000 votes that did not exist. Since then, Raffensperger has proven himself a loyal GOP foot soldier in the fight against voting rights. So, the legacy media is left to look elsewhere.

Its most recent targets for false praise are Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn. Both men are retiring — Cornyn after Trump humiliated him by endorsing his primary opponent, Ken Paxton, who beat him decisively.

For a brief period, the senators had been holding out on advancing Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's nomination, citing concerns about Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund." The fund was part of a corrupt deal to "settle" Trump's lawsuit against the IRS. The agreement was to use the fund to compensate the president's political allies — including those involved with Jan. 6.

This week, we learned how little it took for Tillis and Cornyn to change their minds. After Blanche issued an order claiming to terminate the fund, Tillis and Cornyn quickly hopped on board with nominating the acting attorney general for the permanent post, with the flair for obsequience we have become accustomed to.

"We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon," Cornyn and Tillis said in a joint statement.

I expect that as they wrote this, they had tears in their eyes.

If the legacy media were truly playing it straight, it would report what really happened: Tillis and Cornyn folded like a cheap suit. They revealed themselves to be weak fools — eager to bow and scrape before a president who regularly humiliates them.

During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, Tillis went as far as to both-sides the weaponization of government, admitting that “maybe it's a little bit more intense in this administration,” but claiming that the Biden and Obama administrations were also prone to weaponization.

“I’m going to support Mr. Blanche’s nomination, but what I hope to see out of him is a bending of the curve of this absurdity,” Tillis said, before trying to turn it around on Democrats. “Don’t act like you're standing on some sort of moral high ground if you start attacking this administration because I can match you almost deed for deed.”

Ironically, Blanche is already proving Tillis wrong — leaning into weaponization instead of bending the curve. Despite terminating the slush fund, Blanche kept in place a provision offering Trump, his oldest sons and their business broad immunity for past tax-related conduct. And regardless of what Blanche wants us to think, the slush fund itself may be far from dead.

One party to a settlement typically cannot unilaterally cancel or change it, so by altering the settlement, Blanche may have given the president grounds to sue to force the DOJ to reestablish the fund. Trump himself has said as much: "If they don't approve Todd, I will put it back on the table."

And once Blanche is confirmed, what's stopping him from reviving the fund he just rescinded? Nothing. Tillis and Cornyn know that. They practically admitted it.

“Given this agreement with Mr. Blanche, I expect the DOJ to live up to this in future litigation and I will vote to advance him out of the committee today,” Cornyn said as he advanced Blanche’s nomination through the Senate Judiciary Committee. He expects the DOJ to live up to this deal. How bold of him. How powerful.

Neither man will be returning to Congress after the midterms. They had nothing to lose politically for breaking with Trump — and still couldn't bring themselves to challenge him.

Here's the truth: Republicans may put on a show. They may spend a few weeks acting like they're holding Trump's feet to the fire. But eventually, they always back down.

Whether it's Thom Tillis or John Cornyn or John Curtis or Susan Collins, there are no heroes among congressional Republicans. Only cowards.

The Republicans of an earlier era were far from perfect. But at least some were prepared to put country over party.

In 2021, the Republican Party couldn't even find the votes to convict Trump for inciting an insurrection at our nation's Capitol. What's worse, the senators who once voted to convict Trump still stand by his side, vote for legislation he champions like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and hand him the votes to help him undermine elections.

Don't be fooled when Republicans talk the talk. They will never put country over party. They will never sacrifice their careers for democracy. They will never challenge Trump in any meaningful way.

When all is said and done, history will remember today's congressional Republicans for what they are. Students will learn that when democracy was at stake, the GOP shielded a corrupt president from accountability and helped him grow and amass power.

Congressional Republicans will never be the heroes. At best, they are the cowards. At worst, they are the villains.

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