It's always refreshing when an intellectually honest conservative offers an intellectually honest opinion about Trump and his stupid lying ref-working ways on cable news. Amanda Carpenter did that thing on Wednesday.

"Don't Republicans on Capitol Hill understand that these norms are being eroded and that means that a Democratic president will then do them too," Tapper asked.

"You would think," replied Carpenter. "'Spy-gate' is a movie we've all seen before. It is a repeat of birtherism. It's a repeat of the whole idea of the rigged election and voter fraud. It is a repeat of the unmasking scandal, which was kind of a dud, because they have all of the same elements."

She added, "He's making things up and getting people to go along with it."

Carpenter didn't let Republicans off the hook, noting that Capitol Hill is exacerbating things by going along with it. "There is a cost," she told Tapper.

"I think Trump is damaging the FBI, but now other people are helping him do it and using the levers of government. And that's what's different," she concluded.

This was a discussion that took place before norms were further eroded by the intrusion of Trump's lawyer and chief of staff into meetings which should have been sacrosanct oversight meetings conducted by a bipartisan group in Congress. And Carpenter is absolutely right. There IS a cost, and it's a big one.

However. It is not mere "norms" being shattered. It is our democracy, as Josh Marshall admonished after this segment aired.

He wrote, "As I said, we’re confusing ourselves with the language of norms. Norms are tripwires to avoid abuses of office. But even as we see in front of our eyes the most extreme abuses of office we’re still talking about norms. That’s nuts. The abuses of office are the big thing."

Read the whole essay from Josh. He's right. So is Amanda Carpenter. Trump lies and makes things up, which is bad enough. But the Republicans in Congress enable it. They are co-dependent power addicts who care more about their own agendas than the republic and the constitution which they've sworn to uphold and defend.