Subject: Re: How Hard do Democrats Fight RFK, Jr. Appointment_Q
So far they've been focusing on Gaetz, Hegseth and Gabbard. They really screwed up by going nuts on Gaetz too early: from the dems' point of view, a true reformer sitting on top of the DOJ does them the most harm. They should have waited until Gaetz's Senate hearing to blow him but instead...they got a near-bulletproof pick in Bondi instead. That was a big-time screw-up on their part.

Hegseth is the next most logical one.

I'm not sure this is the result of any Democratic strategizing. People have been focusing on those nominations because they're the ones that show the least accommodation to Republican positions.

Gaetz' nomination didn't fall apart because of the Democrats. Republicans killed his nom. He had no business being selected in the first place - disliked by most members of his party, burdened with a personal scandal, and lacking any of the experience necessary to run a large organization. No matter Gaetz' philosophy of how DoJ should be run or affinity for Trump, he wasn't going to be able to convince all he GOP Senators that he could do that job.

The same thing will likely happen to Hegseth. Senators in the GOP care deeply about the military, and they want it to be run by someone qualified to run it. Again, I don't think those Senators have any objection to a SecDef being very loyal to the President and running the DoD a different way - but they're not going to put someone in charge of a million-plus employee department critical to our national security if they don't think he can do the job. Plus, I don't see how he sits in a room with Joni Ernst (a combat veteran) and explains to her why women shouldn't be allowed to serve in combat roles.

Gabbard's problem is that she's a lifelong Democrat with a handful of very unorthodox positions on a few foreign governments - positions that are unpopular in the GOP caucus. There's quite a few Republican Senators that don't trust her. Party-switchers are very useful as symbols, but they usually don't generate a lot of love within their new party.