North Carolina: Tillis would protect Mueller. US Sen. Thom Tillis (R) published an op/ed in the Washington Post last week explaining why he and US Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Christopher Coons (D-DE) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) have introduced the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. The bipartisan bill “is about protecting the rule of law and producing an outcome that is good for our country. It’s not about producing an outcome for one political party.” ……. Tennessee: Corker regrets tax reform vote. After the Congressional Budget Office said the tax reform act that passed would cost $1.8 trillion over the next decade, US Sen. Bob Corker (R), one of the Senate GOP’s go-to guys on financial policy, told a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee, “If this is accurate, obviously it’s a terrible vote.” ……. Tennessee: Ros-Lehtinen feted at gala. What were Caitlyn Jenner, Richard Gere, US Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Treasurer Rosa Gumataotao Rios and “enough House members to constitute a quorum of some kind,” as the Washington Post put it, doing at the annual dinner of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute last Wednesday? Why, along with US Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (R) family, they were paying tribute to the Florida congresswoman who is, as the Post put it, “one of the too-rare lawmakers beloved by her colleagues” and is retiring at the end of her current term …….