IMO, McConnell as Majority Leader would never have agreed to such a thing. He wouldn’t want to forfeit the right to review presidential appointments and the power that brings him. Yes, the GOP Senators who twice voted to not impeach Trump would probably approve 99% of Trump’s appointments, but I don’t think they’d want to completely cede their own power to say no, if only to not make themselves irrelevant.
We’ll soon see if the new Senate “leadership” has even that homeopathically-attenuated degree of independence or if they’re pure Trump toadies.
Since Noem will require Senate approval, I’d love to see the Democrats calmly, rationally talk at great length about various canines employed by DHS. Don’t actually ask her any questions about dogs or say anything judgmental to her (and this will be the truly difficult part for them). Just take your allotted time and tell stories about dogs that are in service to DHS. Screaming “you killed a dog!” at her will only be met with “wait until you see what I’m going to do to an immigrant”. But telling some nice stories about dogs and their important roles at DHS will leave her in perpetual clenching defensive anticipation of that gotcha question that they so desperately want to ask. But don’t actually do it. Leave her in the gravel pit of her shame, assuming she has any.
McConnell’s chosen replacements haven’t agreed to Trump’s demand. One of them said something to the order of, “Recess appointments already exist and work just the way that everyone thinks they do.” I.e. you’ve made a poorly phrased request for something to be newly made that actually already exists. No action necessary.
I think the more important thing that people should be noting is that Trump is actively asking for the Senate to ignore the Constitution. He is, of course, taking on the job of the person whose primary objective is to preserve and defend the Constitution.
It’s not specifically about the Presidential Cabinet but this paywalled story from the Wall Street Journal is terrifying.
The Trump transition team is considering a draft executive order that establishes a “warrior board” of retired senior military personnel with the power to review three- and four-star officers and to recommend removals of any deemed unfit for leadership.
Apparently they want only Trump loyalists in Pentagon leadership.
Which is exactly what I’ve expected all along. The one thing Trump really learned from his first time around was that actually qualified people had a nasty tendency to not do what they were told, if it was something really stupid. No way he makes that mistake twice.
Trump: I don’t want the schools teaching woke. Tell the schools to stop teaching woke!
Chief of Staff: Sure, I’ll just call up the Secretary of Education and OH WAIT…
Getting rid of the FBI is certainly not good. Making them more efficient and less bureaucratic, on the other hand…
My general read of the Horowitz report on the Russia investigation was that the FBI and DOJ, by law, are required to do a bunch of paperwork that - if they actually did it all - they’d probably never have the time to make more than an arrest or two a year. Subsequently, they cut corners sometimes and violate the (current) legal rights of suspects.
As a watchguard for bureaucratic diligence, Horowitz’s takeaway was that the FBI failed. My takeaway was that the process should be simplified and automated.
But… That would require that someone make that case to Congress and that said person has credibility with them, when saying that the current system is flawed and that the proposed replacement will still protect the rights of the accused. Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy are liable to be that person.
Yep. I’m not sure about Senate confirmation going well for either Gaetz or Gabbard. Of course, if he gets them to let him do recess appointments, that won’t matter.
