Earlier this month, I wrote a blog post about the Religious Right’s decision to stick with President Donald J. Trump no matter what he says or does.

Let’s engage in a thought experiment: Pretend that it’s May of 2009, and Barack Obama, who has been president for a few months, has just shared some highly classified intelligence with the Russians.

When I heard that President-elect Donald Trump on Friday had nominated U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to be attorney general, I immediately remembered something that happened in 1999.