Two Republican senators threatened to block the attorney general nominee, then took his word that a $1.8 billion slush fund would vanish.

"I have not seen something as farcical as what I have witnessed over the last few weeks."

— Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), on the Blanche confirmation deal

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along strict party lines to advance Todd Blanche to the full Senate for confirmation as attorney general. The story is not that Republicans moved him forward. The story is how little it took for them to stop pretending they would not.

Two outgoing senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, had publicly threatened to block the nomination over Blanche's role in creating a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" as part of a settlement between the Justice Department and the IRS. They called it a "payout pot for punks." They said the fund risked becoming a taxpayer-financed reward for Trump loyalists. They demanded written guarantees it would be rescinded.

Blanche provided those guarantees on Sunday. On Tuesday, the committee advanced his nomination. The entire rebellion lasted five working days.

The fund itself was created in May as part of a settlement ending Trump's lawsuit against the IRS after a former contractor leaked the president's confidential tax records. Blanche, acting as attorney general at the time, signed the order establishing the fund. It was designed to compensate people Trump claimed were victims of politically motivated investigations. Critics immediately noted the list of potential recipients could include defendants from the January 6 Capitol riot.

No board was ever appointed. No money moved. No claims were filed or paid. Blanche's rescinding order on Sunday stressed that the fund had never actually been operational.

Translation: the only thing the fund accomplished was holding up a confirmation vote long enough to look like a fight.

Senator Tillis described the fund as an insult to the police officers and civilians who defended the Capitol on January 6. He said he was satisfied the deal was done. Cornyn, who faced public criticism from Trump over the weekend for extracting concessions, told reporters there was "no alternative but to take his word" on the rescission.

Cornyn also said he expected the Justice Department to "live up to this in future litigation." It is unclear what enforcement mechanism backs that expectation beyond Blanche's own signature.

The Democrats on the committee did not mince words. Every single one opposed the nomination.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said the committee was about to advance "probably the most discreditable person ever to seek the office of Attorney General of the United States." That was not a partisan barb delivered in passing. It was the summary judgment of a senator who has sat on the Judiciary Committee since 1999.

The objections went well beyond the slush fund. Democrats raised Blanche's mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which Congress had mandated be made public after public outcry forced a reversal. They cited the Justice Department's failure to bring charges in the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good during a federally funded policing operation known as Operation Metro Surge. They pointed to the prosecution of protesters and the revival of the second indictment against former FBI Director James Comey.

The Comey case deserves particular attention. A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted Comey over a photograph he posted of seashells arranged on a beach to spell "86 47" — shorthand for removing Trump from office. Comey surrendered in late April to face the charges. The legal community widely described the prosecution as parody.

Senator Tillis himself criticized the Comey prosecution during the hearing. "Some bonehead in North Carolina thinks that is a crime," Tillis said. "Well, they better damn sure have information to back it up because if all it is is a picture, that person should lose his job."

The senator who demanded accountability for taxpayer-funded slush funds was also the one calling out the department's abuse of prosecutorial power. He just did not apply it to the nomination he was voting on.

Booker's "hat and no cattle" line captured the core problem. Blanche's written assurances are not backed by legislation. The underlying IRS settlement still references the fund. A future attorney general, or Trump with Congressional support, could attempt to revive it. Trump himself signaled this possibility over the weekend, saying that if Blanche's confirmation stalled entirely, he would keep him in an acting capacity and push lawmakers to recreate the fund through legislation.

The New York Times reported that Blanche's documents addressing the IRS deal contain significant loopholes. The Justice Department separately clarified that the tax immunity portion of the settlement was limited to the original plaintiffs and did not amount to blanket protection from future audits. This clarification was not in Blanche's rescinding order. It was a side channel communication.

Vox summarized the entire episode: "The Republican resistance to DOJ nominee Todd Blanche was never serious. Two key Republican senators drew a line in the sand. It was not far from where Trump already stood."

Blanche was Trump's personal defense lawyer before becoming acting attorney general. The Justice Department is supposed to operate independently of the White House. That independence is maintained by convention, not statute, which means the moment a president appoints a loyalist as its head, the convention evaporates.

The GOP senators who objected to the slush fund did not object to the loyalist. They objected to the accounting. The distinction matters.

The full Senate will likely confirm Blanche within days. The resistance was performative, the concessions were paper thin, and the attorney general-designate has already demonstrated a willingness to negotiate away the very mechanisms that could make him answerable.

The question is not whether Republicans put up a fight. The question is whether anyone mistakes a photo op for a principle.