The good news. A lobbying effort by Gaetz himself as well as JD Vance hit a wall as Gaetz wasted no time withdrawing his nomination after just one day of meetings. Senators appear to have shown a little spine.
The bad news. Maybe now GOP Senators feel they've done their due diligence and will cower their way through the rest of the process.
Headline: New York Times op-ed by Frank Bruni
But the Senate? It prized, or at least preached, dignity. Its members considered themselves a more even-keeled, erudite sort. And most (though not all) were. While a randomly interviewed House member was as likely to spew inanity as insight, most senators had something substantive to say. That was essential to their ethos and integral to their airs.
Not anymore. For decades now, the Senate has been losing its august way, and a second Trump administration will reveal just how shamefully far from its onetime description as “the world’s greatest deliberative body” it has strayed.
Yes, its Republican members owe a degree of deference and robust measure of cooperation to Donald Trump, whom a majority of American voters just elected. But they don’t owe him Gaetz as attorney general, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services or Mehmet Oz as the overseer of Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare.I nominate Pete Hegseth to be added to your list, Frank.
1 down, many to go.
Stephen Miller, Matt Gaetz, Tom Homan, Todd Blanche, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Douglas Collins, Michael Waltz, Pete Hegseth, Mike Huckabee, Elon Musk, Jay Clayton, Lee Zeldin, John Ratcliffe, Doug Burgum, William McGinley, Brendan Carr, Chris Wright, Taylor Budowich, Matt Whitaker, Howard Lutnick, James Blair, Dan Scavino, Sergio Gor Sean Duffy, Mehmet Oz, Marco Rubio, Vivek Ramaswamy, Steven Cheung, Susie Willes, Elise Stefanik, Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Caroline Leavitt, Linda McMahon.
Trump nominations and appointments clown show:
Donald Trump nominations and appointments crazy train: Which way you, goin', Ron Johnson? (11/19)
Donald Trump nominations and appointments crazy train: Which way you, goin', John Thunen? (11/19)
Looney Tunes News: Trump picks Road Rules reality TV star Sean Duffy as Secretary of Transportation (You can't make this stuff up!). (11/18)
13 reasons why Trump's atrocious Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth should have been vetted. (11/18)
2024 (November 11-17)
