Despite the ever-tightening ratchet of US sanctions, only 36 percent of responders believe such a strategy could improve bilateral ties between Washington and Moscow, the Gallup poll revealed Monday. In defiance of the mass hysteria surrounding the supposed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections, 58 percent of Americans think improving relations with Russia is more important than applying punitive economic and diplomatic measures.

However, despite the lack of any concrete evidence of Russian interference in the US elections, most Americans (75 percent) still fell victim to the mass media reports that see a Kremlin hand in bringing President Donald Trump to power. Some 39 percent of Americans believe that Russian interference changed the outcome of the vote, while 36 percent believe that Russia tried but failed to change the election outcome. Only 16 percent of responders, polled August 1-12, said Russia had nothing to do with US democratic process.

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It is a well written opinion, but it is deeply flawed when held up to the light of reality. Its implications are its weakness. Under the ruling, a crafty deputy attorney general could appoint the most powerful prosecutor in the land with an unlimited term, hidden authority, independent budget, and with little oversight by the president or Congress just by declaring the attorney general to have a conflict and therefore to be disabled. Or an attorney general looking to sink a president can simply say his hands are tied and delegate the process to folks immune from direct authority.

Come to think of it, one of those alternatives is exactly what we are living through right now, and it has bitterly divided the country. Given that an impeachment trial requires two-thirds of the Senate, the appointment of independent counsels with a majority vote of the Senate makes sense. It would prevent the runaway appointments and prosecutions that have been the ignominious hallmark of special counsels. It would put the Constitution back in the driver seat, and end these secret processes that have allowed the hijacking of our government by unelected officials.

I hope this case gets to the Supreme Court with all deliberate speed so the ruling can be overturned. The entire country knows that one presidential campaign was treated one way and another was treated much differently. Rosenstein and Mueller have become blind to the corrosive effect of this unfair justice. Ending the appointment of the special counsel on grounds that it needed Senate confirmation could be the best way out of the mess created by this backdoor granting of power.

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