The Republican state Senate succeeded this week in forcing out Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Laura Bishop, whose chief sin, apparently, was carrying out the agenda of the DFL governor who appointed her, Tim Walz.

Bishop resigned shortly before a confirmation vote that would have sealed her fate. Senate Republicans waited until the budget was completed, waited until the legislation most important to them — the tax bill, with its $1 billion in cuts — was signed by Walz. Then, when both sides should have taken a moment to congratulate one another on a hard-fought but well-balanced budget marked by compromise, the Senate decided to exact its revenge. So eager were its members to do so that they extended the special session at taxpayer expense.

Bishop didn't fit the GOP's attempts to paint her as some wild-eyed liberal. Prior to joining the cabinet, she worked for Best Buy for 16 years. She was part of the leadership team that succeeded in the remarkable turnaround of a company that at one point appeared doomed.

Previously Bishop had been a member of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce board of directors and chaired the Minnesota Retailers Association. She also has a lengthy list of public contributions that included stints at the U.S. State Department and White House.

Candidates of that quality are hard to come by, and even harder to persuade to leave the private sector for state government. They deserve better than to have a sword kept hanging over their heads, which this time dropped two and a half years into Bishop's four-year term.

Who will take these jobs knowing that a Senate vote could remove them at any time for virtually any reason? Senate Republicans' beef was with the governor, over climate change policies on which they have a different viewpoint. In particular they objected to tougher emission standards.

That is a policy dispute best settled by elections. Bishop broke no laws, violated no ethical standards. Firing her accomplishes little, since Walz has already named her replacement. And it has cost the state yet another public servant.

The Senate exercised its option to hold a confirmation vote at any time. For much of the state's history the Senate, with few exceptions, gave governors their choice of cabinet members. Since 1980, only about a dozen failed confirmation. There have been a couple of other notable cases. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's first education commissioner, Cheri Yecke, failed confirmation on a party-line vote in a DFL Senate in 2004. Carol Molnau, who served as Pawlenty's lieutenant governor and transportation commissioner was relieved of departmental duties after the collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge.

Just as troubling as the action the Senate took this week was the way lawmakers took it. This was not something so urgent that it required extending a special session. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, adjourned earlier this week without taking up two other commissioners scheduled for votes, Sarah Strommen at the Department of Natural Resources and Jennifer Ho at Housing, saying that they did not need to worry about their jobs going forward.

But why wouldn't they worry? Another special session is coming in September, to iron out details over distribution of bonuses to front-line workers during the pandemic. Walz should get an ironclad agreement that that session will not be used to force out additional commissioners.

Gazelka, who is considering a run for governor, said recently that "it's important for a governor to pick commissioners who can work on both sides of the aisle." But Bishop did work with both sides. The MPCA under her tenure granted permits to the controversial Line 3 pipeline and defended PolyMet mining permits in court, projects supported by Republicans.

This tactic may well cost Minnesota valuable candidates now and in the future. Our state will be poorer for it.