A Ray of Light?

Is Matt Gaetz “pulling out” of his nomination to lead the Department of Justice a ray of light amidst the dark clouds of Trump’s burn-the-house-down Cabinet nominations so far? Or is it just a “one-off,” reflecting the universal hate for Gaetz among his erstwhile congressional colleagues? It’s far too early to tell, for Gaetz appears to be the worst and most bizarre of Trump’s nose-thumbing nominations so far.

We don’t know precisely what induced Gaetz to bow out. Was it a threat of massive criminal prosecution for his alleged sexual predation and sex-trafficking of underage girls? Did private discussions with Trump by people he trusts change his mind? Or did simple math — knowing that votes in the Senate to confirm Gaetz were not there — convince Gaetz or Trump to do the right thing?

Whatever the answers, the outcome provides a faint hope that the Senate may actually do its job, albeit not nearly in the way our Founders conceived.

As a number of high-profile confirmation hearings have shown, the Senate’s advise-and-consent process no longer works as our Founders intended. In open, public hearings, nominees lie, Senators posture and toe party lines, and the intended process of independent legislative-branch judgment fails utterly.

We saw this most clearly in the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justices. In their respective Senate hearings, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas all swore to respect precedent. Yet all three later voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a half-century-old precedent. Moreover, in the hearings of Kavanaugh and Thomas, the Senate inappropriately disregarded, if not marginalized, the courageous testimony of two women who accused the nominees of sexually inappropriate behavior grossly unbefitting judges on the nation’s highest court.

These hearings were not just far from our nation’s finest hour. They were an utter refutation of the notion that the Senate could do its constitutional job in open, public hearings. And the trend toward posturing and “performance politics” in public statements has only gotten worse — much worse — since then.

What happened in Gaetz’ case presents another model of Senate operation entirely. Everything important happened in private. Not even our best news media can tell us what, if anything, was decisive, or whether and how Trump himself changed his mind or Gaetz’.

But the Senate doing its job in private is infinitely better than not doing it at all. The private rejection of candidates also seems to accommodate Trump’s personality and transactional bent.

In this new model of advising and consenting, Senators need not oppose Trump’s worst nominees publicly and risk his wrath for “disloyalty.” They need not risk being “primaried” in the next election.

In private, Senators can reason and bargain with Trump. They might even propose altnerative sane and qualified right-wing nominees, who are willing to work with Trump for the good of the nation and can be characterized (or mischaracterized?) as Trump loyalists.

In other words, clever Republican Senators can do their patriotic duty without shedding the cowardice that apparently has suborned most or all of them.

True, such a system looks much more like monarchy than the public evaluation of nominees that our Founders envisaged. It smacks of whispering quietly in the Grand Vizier’s ear, knowing that he will know best how to leverage the King’s vanity.

But it’s far, far better than having vital top positions like Secdef and DNI filled with people having no relevant experience, or motivated by cooky ideologies like the Christian nationalism exposed in Pete Hegseth’s “Deus Vult” tatoo. If this model of private but real advising and consenting continues, we just might have a reasonably qualified, if right-wing, Cabinet teed up, if not confirmed, by January 20, and our Republic just might survive Trump’s second term. Our media would then have to decide whether to cover Senate confirmation hearings, which would only invite senators to put a performative “spin” on matters already decided in private.

For brief descriptions of and links to recent posts, click here. For an inverse-chronological list with links to all posts after January 23, 2017, click here. For a subject-matter index to posts before that date, click here.

Permalink to this post

Our Last Hope

We are living the apocalypse. We will soon replay the last epoch of Rome, but with risks far greater than Rome ever faced.

We face runaway planetary heating, conventional war with China, Iran, and Russia, nuclear war by accident or miscalculation, globally exploding self-made pollution with plastics and plasticizers, and an angry citizenry armed with hand-held automatic weapons, each of which could have wiped out an entire Roman legion.

The leader of the most powerful nation on Earth, with the stealthiest if not the most numerous nukes, will soon be a mad narcissist bent on self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment, and personal revenge for real and perceived slights. He’s not unlike Rome’s mad emperors Nero, Caligula and Commodus, but all rolled up into one. And already he’s nominated as key members of his Cabinet-to-be people who are as unfit and unqualified as he, and in some cases even more deranged.

So what stands between us—indeed, our entire species—and the Abyss? Just a handful of Republican Senators.

All were once known for varying degrees of pragmatism, common sense, thoughtfulness, and decency. All, to varying degrees and with varying contortions, have bowed to our next supreme leader in ways big and small.

Soon they will face the question whether to “advise and consent” to installing his worst nominees in key Cabinet positions.

This is not just a matter of “politics as usual.” It’s not just the old, now-familiar “pendulum swing,” from right to left and back, that so many commentators in news media hopefully invoke. This is crunch time for America and what remains of the Western Enlightenment. It could be crunch time for our species.

One way disaster could befall us, and soon, is in Ukraine. Just two days ago, President Biden authorized Ukraine to use inside Russia the long-range conventional (non-nuclear) missiles, called ATACMS, that we have provided. The go-ahead came far too late to entrench Ukraine’s early battlefield successes. So Ukraine will probably continue to lose civilians, morale, and even some territory. But the go-ahead could help prevent the collapse of one or more of Ukraine’s now-shaky fronts.

Already, Putin has threatened to widen the conflict, claiming that our belated go-ahead to Ukraine to use ATACMS inside Russia is tantamount to our direct involvement in the war. Just yesterday, he broadened his nuclear policy to increase the threat of using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

Suppose Putin decides to lob a battlefield (“small”) nuke on an entire deployment of Ukrainian troops, just after Pete Hegseth has sat down in Lloyd Austin’s seat as Secdef and Tulsi Gabbard in Avril Haines’ seat as Director of National Intelligence. Suppose he lobs the nuke on the biggest Ukrainian encampment in Kursk, just inside Russia’s border, after secretly evacuating Russian troops and civilians, and after making sure the wind will blow the fallout into Ukraine. Suppose he “justifies” the nuclear strike by saying Russia can do whatever it pleases inside its own territory.

Does anyone think either of these two clueless, inexperienced blowhards (Hegseth or Gabbard) would have the faintest idea what to do? Likely, they would urge Ukraine to surrender, or at least to give up Kursk as a bargaining chip without further ado. Or they might do something rash that would provoke a species-extinguishing nuclear holocaust. Does any sane citizen want this much risk in their inexperienced hands?

I needn’t prolong this post by outlining what would happen to law enforcement if Matt Gaetz ever heads up the DOJ. Prosecution of tax cheats, government-payment fraudsters, polluters, abusers of migrants in business, and sexual predators would virtually cease. The Department of Justice would transform itself into an instrument of political vengeance against left-leaning public servants like Nancy Pelosi, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis. Tax cheats, Medicare and Medicaid fraudsters, and grifters of all kinds would have a field day. American business would become a playground for crooked oligarchs, even more so than at present.

The only people who now can make sure these horribles never happen are the Senate Republicans who have not entirely knuckled under to Trump. They include Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and John Thune of South Dakota, the upcoming Senate Majority Leader. If all four of them vote against confirmation, they can overcome the GOP’s three-vote Senate majority and keep our Cabinet members sane and qualified.

If you live in any of their jurisdictions, you know what to do. You must deluge them with direct pleas not to confirm Gaetz, Hegseth or Hubbard, or anyone else similarly unqualified. This may be your last chance to push for sane and competent government before the ax falls on January 20.

For brief descriptions of and links to recent posts, click here. For an inverse-chronological list with links to all posts after January 23, 2017, click here. For a subject-matter index to posts before that date, click here.

Permalink to this post