Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 6
Matt Gaetz
A pick seven years in the making.
The Surge spent a good amount of time in the Capitol this week. When Trump posted that he would nominate Florida (now ex-)Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general, it was as if the building itself asked, What the fuck?? You can make the argument that other reckless nominees, in the positions to which they’ve been nominated, present a greater risk to general public well-being. But nothing equals the malevolence behind the pick of Gaetz, an unqualified troll openly despised by colleagues on the left and the right for his hostility to a functional working environment, who resigned his seat this week to preempt the release of what’s expected to be a damaging Ethics Committee report into his alleged corruption, drug use, and sexual misconduct. (Resigning his seat is only the second-most-dramatic thing he’s done to stymie this yearslong investigation; he overthrew a House speaker last year for the same reason.) We see three factors in this pick. The first is that Gaetz was able to make his case while chief of staff Susie Wiles was in another room. The second is that this is a position in which loyalty is of special importance to Trump; he loathes his previous two attorneys general, Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr, for not preventing the Mueller investigation and not doing enough to overturn the 2020 election, respectively. Gaetz will do whatever Trump wants. And third, what Trump wants is to make the Justice Department a weapon of the presidency. So: Is the Senate going to let him? Or, rather, can it stop him?
From Slate's The Surge
This has to be one of the most ridiculous, but at the same time dangerous, appointments EVER.
Can you imagine the wails coming from the right if the Dems ever tried to pull such a naked attempt at subverting our democracy?
No. of Recommendations: 0
I have heard from a source that has been out of the loop for perhaps 10 years now......
Kevin McCarthy and some of his lobby buddies are trying to make sure he doesn't become AG.
I agree it's a ridiculous pick.
I can't help but think Trump knows this guy won't be confirmed -- so there is some other reason behind this pick mind you, I rarely can credit trump for thinking too far ahead.
No. of Recommendations: 4
Can you imagine the wails coming from the right if the Dems ever tried to pull such a naked attempt at subverting our democracy? - ges
-------------------
Don't have to imagine it. We lived it - see Hunter Laptop, lying to FISA court, and the Mueller investigation, proposals to eliminate the filibuster, add two democrat states, and pack the supreme court.
No. of Recommendations: 8
Don't have to imagine it. We lived it - see Hunter Laptop, lying to FISA court, and the Mueller investigation, proposals to eliminate the filibuster, add two democrat states, and pack the supreme court.
Refuting the above point by point has been done ad nauseum.
Doing so again is pointless.
Dope's mini-me drowned in the orange koolaid. His heart is still beating but his brain has flatlined.
Perhaps a merciful relative will intervene over the holidays.
No. of Recommendations: 2
I can't help but think Trump knows this guy won't be confirmed -- so there is some other reason behind this pick mind you, I rarely can credit trump for thinking too far ahead.
I try to keep things simple with Trump. As you say, he doesn’t think too far ahead. Gaetz is a bit better at that. They both like to save face.
We also know Trump is easily swayed by flattery.
So my guess is that this is all driven by Gaetz and not Trump. Gaetz needed an out for his House investigation. But he didn’t want to simply resign, as that would look exactly like what it is - bailing out because the House investigation is bad.
So he cooks up a plan to get into the Trump AG spot. It’s a win win for the two of them. Gaetz would become Trump’s toady and kill off any DOJ investigation into Trump. And while he’s at it, he’d kill off any into him as well.
As to confirmation, Trump is trying to run roughshod over the process. Only time will tell if that will work. He got a small setback when Scott lost the top Senate spot. Thune is still a GOP faithful, but isn’t the pushover for Trump that Scott would have been. I suspect Thune will be much like McConnell - talks about being skeptical of Trump, but will cave on most things out of loyalty to party. My guess is that he won’t cave on the recess appointment. He might let Gaetz through, or he might make him the sacrificial lamb so someone else of dubious qualifications can get confirmed. Gaetz doesn’t have a lot of friends on The Hill, so it wouldn’t be hard to do some horse trading with Gaetz on the short end of that trade.
Even then, it all might work to keep Gaetz investigations under wraps. And that is Gaetz’ long term goal.
—Peter
