MORE IMPORTANT IS THE FLIP SIDE...:

We should say that it's possible that Sessions' conversations with the ambassador were perfectly innocent, even if one has to wonder why he would deny that they had occurred if that were the case. And it's possible that there was nothing wrong with Michael Flynn's contacts with the ambassador, or the money he got from Russian state television. And there may be a reasonable explanation for why Trump campaign officials suddenly softened the Republican platform's language about Russia during the GOP convention. And there may be nothing wrong with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's work for a pro-Russian strongman in Ukraine, or with Trump associate Roger Stone's contacts with WikiLeaks about hacked DNC emails, or with the Russian ties of Trump Cabinet members like Rex Tillerson and Wilbur Ross. And maybe Trump's people had absolutely nothing to do with all the Russian hacking that was meant to help him get elected. And perhaps no Republicans were involved in the Russian hacking of Democratic congressional candidates, even though Republicans, including a PAC with ties to none other than Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, then used the information from the hacks to attack their opponents (bet you forgot about that one).

Might it even be possible that there's nothing more to be learned about Trump and Russia, that there are no secrets lying within this web of denial and obfuscation, that it's all above board and ethical? Sure -- anything's possible. But given everything that we do know, that seems rather unlikely.

So imagine you're a Republican member of Congress. You already had to make a whole bunch of moral compromises to get behind this president. But you decided it was worth it, both because there are so many conservative initiatives you'd like to see a Republican president sign, and because you despised Hillary Clinton so deeply.

But now every day, you have to decide anew: How far am I willing to go to protect this president and this administration? The answer for any politician is: only as far as it remains to my advantage, both in terms of the policies I want and my own political survival.

But the pressure is growing. 

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