Trump To Senate: Nice Article II You Got There, Now Drown It In The Potomac
We believe Duran Duran once noted that the recess is a lonely child.
Donald Trump, the convicted felon who is also, you may have heard, going to be the next president of the United States, has a problem.
The problem is that Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution still exists, probably mostly because John Roberts and the rest of the Roger Taney Fan Club on the Supreme Court haven’t gotten their grubby, corrupt fingers on it. And they have not gotten those fingers on Article II, Section 2 mostly because said fingers are too busy grabbing every goodie Harlan Crow and other billionaires keep waving in front of their noses, and God only gave Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas two hands apiece to work with, the dirty liberal.
Article II, Section 2 is the Advice and Consent clause, the section of the Constitution that gives the Senate the power to confirm presidential Cabinet appointments, judges, ambassadors, and so forth. This is possibly going to be a problem for Trump because he wants to appoint absolutely insane lunatics that even a few of the less-crazy Republicans in the Senate can’t stomach, and he wants it to happen immediately.
But President-elect Brainworms has hit on an idea, which he sent out on social media this weekend when he wasn’t busy getting his diaper rash powdered:
"Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner," Trump wrote, adding, "Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY!"
We assume he meant eight years ago, because four years ago the Senate was confirming Joe Biden’s appointees, and we doubt Trump was rooting for any of those to go through with any alacrity.
The three mountebanks vying to be the next majority leader in the Senate all hopped on board right away by pre-emptively blaming Democrats:
What makes the Cornyn and Thune tweets particularly hilarious is that Republicans will have at least 53 seats in the next Senate and there is no filibuster for confirming presidential appointments. So Democrats can’t do anything except question the nominees during hearings, and we’re betting the Republicans will end even that courtesy if they feel like it. Or if Trump tweets out some incoherent gibberish like, TRAITOR DEMS UNDERMINE AMERICA BY QUESTIONING MY CABINET APPOINTMENTS! THEY ARE THE ENEMY WITHIN! REPUBLICANS MUST GET SMART!
The point is, the Republicans don’t need Democrats to confirm anyone. They do not even need Democrats to show up for the full vote on any nominees, because they only need 50 Senators to form a quorum and start a session. And if Democrats do show up, they can sit at their desks and play “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” on a Nintendo Switch while the GOP feeds the remains of our democracy into a tree shredder.
It’s also funny because with that majority, Senate leaders will be able to ignore, say, Lisa Murkowsi and Susan Collins, the two senators most likely to make a huge display of their discomfort with, say, Vivek Ramaswamy being nominated as Secretary of State. (He is allegedly on the short list.)
Of course Cornyn, Thune, Scott, and the rest of the merry band of weirdos already know this. So do Trump’s people, which may explain why they had him appoint the execrable Tom Homan to the position of “border czar,” a made-up position that does not require Senate confirmation. Now that dollar-store Michael Chiklis is charge of enforcing immigration laws.
Homan has long been controversial, by which we mean a bigoted asshole. He ran ICE during the Obama and early Trump years and was an architect of the original family separation policy that cruelly tore parents and kids away from each other. Even before the election, Homan was practically jizzing in his own jockstrap at the thought of getting to carry out mass deportations again:
Asked if mass deportations could be carried out without separating families, Homan said, "Of course there is. Families can be deported together." One study shows roughly 4 million U.S. citizen children live with an undocumented parent.
That is the sort of comment that would cause problems for a nominee in a hearing, even if it is a Republican asking him about it.
One irony of the whole recess appointments demand is that, as NBC News pointed out, the Supreme Court shot down Obama’s efforts to use them during a three-day Senate break by a score of 9-0. Would that make them unconstitutional, and could Senate Democrats sue the Republicans on that basis? We have no idea, but if Dems are otherwise useless at the moment, they might as well have some fun while they are recharging their Switches.
Wonkette is reader-funded and had the Chiefs beating the spread on Sunday.
Remember how we gave Senate Republicans two chances to escape their abuser, and they fell all over themselves telling everyone they loved him so much and he’s just misunderstood?
So he doesn't want the FBI vetting appointees and he doesn't want the Senate to "advise and consent". If I didn't know better, I'd say he's trying to push a bunch of unqualified people through the process.