The Most Important Rule Of Surviving A Political Confirmation Fight Is: Don’t Quit!
All of 47's controversial nominees have been confirmed. Save one.
As President-Elect Donald Trump rolled out his cabinet picks, observers were pleasantly surprised with a handful of picks, like Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. Others—Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, Robert Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Kash Patel for Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation among them—were a wee bit more controversial. Some observers, at least, questioned whether they were suited for positions of high public trust. There were questions of moral turpitude. Of seasoning. Of being stooges for adversarial foreign powers. Of brain worms taking a toll on their sanity. Of plans to turn the ostensible mission of the agency they would lead on its head. You know, things like that.
Back in the halcyon days of late 2024, there was a quaint notion going around that the United States Senate might refuse to confirm some or all of these nominees. As of today’s confirmation of Patel, all of these people are set to be sworn in.
All, that is, save for Gaetz.
Gaetz, reading the writing on the wall, quickly withdrew his name from consideration. In hindsight, however, he was a fool. He would surely have been confirmed.
Many times over the years, I have cited Matt Yglesias‘s 2011 essay, “The Most Important Rule Of Surviving A Political Sex Scandal Is: Don’t Resign!” I’ve seen it play out over and over, not just for sex scandals but other brouhahas. So long as the politician is willing to endure the heat during the initial wave of press scrutiny, it usually blows over. If they’re not and resign, they always lose.
Party line confirmation seem unlikely to unite the country.
/snark
A Cabinet of Dunces, with apologies to Doris Kearns-Goodwin.
This. Two things I surmise are: (1) Gaetz didn’t want the results of the investigation into his extracurricular sexcapades to be aired during Hearings, and (2) he is hated by many on both sides of the aisle.
Earlier, I naively thought a couple of the nominees – Hegseth, Gabbard or maybe Patel – would not make it through. Now that I’m woke I’m convinced that had Matt waited it out he would have been confirmed, probably 50-50 with Vance breaking the tie.
Congressional Republicans have given Trump everything he wants, and I suspect that if the excrement hits the fan, they universally feel it will fall to Trump and Musk, not to them.
@al Ameda:
This is funny, as federal employees — and their friends and loved ones — live all around the country.
Virginia has a glut of such people. Virginia’s closely-watched gubernatorial race is this just s little over eight months from now. Trump and Musk won’t be officially on the ballot, but unofficially they’ll be on the ballot.
Someone posited that the choice of Gaetz was deliberate on the grounds that all the other choices would look good by comparison.
James, you write that “observers were pleasantly surprised with a handful of picks” for Trump’s cabinet, yet you named only one – SecState Rubio.
Now that Rubio’s first major application of diplomacy in his new role has been to have Trump’s back as he sells out Ukraine (in what Prof. Taylor calls “A Grotesquerie for Our Age”), can you point me to any other “pleasantly surprising” Trump Cabinet members I can put my hopes in?
NOTE: This snark is not pointed at you, James. But, geez, when you best you can point to is the hapless Rubio…
NOTE 2: I don’t think it’ll be too long until Rubio wishes he quit before he was confirmed.
@al Ameda: I never had any doubt as to the outcome. I was confident that Republican Senators who could not find the courage to throw Trump under the bus even though they wouldn’t face reelection for 4-6 years (I was willing to allow the running in 22s a pass for the risk that community memory is that long) were not going to find spines all of a sudden. (Or rent them from people who have one.)
I also think that if there were enough Republican Senators to throw the races to Vance’s lap, Mitch wouldn’t be voting “no” as often. Mitch doesn’t have any principles, but he does like to be seen as having them.
@CSK:
I thought Gaetz might be a sacrifice. Those in Congress got to make noise, he dropped out, they had their head. But many saw the mood of the country, but really knew that consistent opposition was not going to go well for them come next election.
I’ve notice that even the few Democrats in Congress who rushed out to “fight” DOGE seem to have quietened right down. Likely not out, but laying low since they no longer have the cash to throw around for “grassroots” protests in the streets. Not to mention, with Bondi and Patel, the free passes to attack federal officers protecting a federal courthouse are no more.
@JKB: Yes, Dems need to ask George Soros for more cash to pay all those Antifa thugs to protest in the streets. Your most laughable line of all is this:”…with Bondi and Patel, the free passes to attack federal officers protecting a federal courthouse are no more.” But the free passes to attack Capitol and Metro Police officers remain in effect, eh? Not to mention seditious conspiracy no longer being quite so bad. You may want to call your doctor and ask if there is a cure for cranial-rectal inversion.