Dec.10

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

Today's Appointments News

Yesterday was another day with a fair bit of news on the appointments front, so we'll return to the capsule approach:

• Hegseth Watch, Part I: Over the weekend, a federal judge affirmed that the Naval Academy is allowed to use affirmative action in admissions, because doing so serves a legitimate national security purpose. Meanwhile, top Pentagon brass expressed grave concern about the publication of a list, from the right-wing American Accountability Foundation, of generals who need to be purged because they are too "woke."
  
  Perhaps in view of one or both of these two developments, Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth, as he tries to save his nomination, has been modifying some of his more extreme positions. For example, he explained on Monday that when he said he doesn't want women serving in combat positions, what he actually meant was that "Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there, are women who serve, raise their right hand to defend this country and love our nation, want to defend that flag, and they do it every single day around the globe," and that "I look forward to being a secretary for all our warriors, men and women, for the amazing contributions they make in our military." Hmmm. That's very different.
  
  
• Hegseth Watch, Part II: Meanwhile, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) announced yesterday that she will "support Pete," which presumably means a "yea" vote when and if his nomination comes to the floor.
  
  We don't have the faintest idea what this means. Ernst, who was previously a Hegseth skeptic, may have changed course because she's satisfied by his changing stance on women soldiers. Or, she may not have wanted to alienate MAGA voters by opposing one of Trump's key nominees. Or, she may think that Hegseth is still going down, and that she might get the nod to lead the Pentagon, and so she does not want to appear to be voting in a self-interested fashion.
  
  It has also been said many other senators were looking to Ernst to be the point person here. That could mean that if Ernst thinks Hegseth is OK, then the other senators will decide he's OK, too. On the other hand, it could mean that they plan to vote against Hegseth, and they were hoping Ernst would give them some cover to do so. The fact that such cover is gone might not actually change their votes.
  
  
• Hegseth Watch, Part III: One piece of information that obliquely suggests that Hegseth is still in trouble is that Lara Trump resigned from the RNC over the weekend. This could be the prelude to a quid pro quo arrangement in which Hegseth is cashiered, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) appoints Lara Trump to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and then DeSantis is chosen as the replacement nominee for Hegseth.
  
  
• Hegseth Watch, Part IV: The upshot of the three previous capsules is that there's some pretty good evidence Hegseth may manage to salvage his nomination, and some pretty good evidence that he's still in trouble. Something that might reconcile all of this is the insider report that Donald Trump's inner circle sees Hegseth as a "heat shield" who deflects attention from other controversial nominees, like Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And Team Trump, being highly transactional, will be OK with it if Hegseth twists in the wind for weeks (or longer), serving as heat shield for all that time, and then ends up being cast aside.
  
  
• Ig-Nobel: Speaking of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a group of 77 Nobel laureates published an open letter this weekend in which they warned the Senate that approving him as HHS Secretary would be a colossal mistake, and a huge setback for public health. The laureates include winners of the prizes for chemistry, physics, medicine and economics. That means no peace or literature laureates. Maybe the folks who put the letter together felt that non-science people are not useful here. Or maybe Bob Dylan, Annie Ernaux, Narges Mohammadi and Al Gore think Kennedy wouldn't be so bad. Who knows?
  
  In any event, a big part of Donald Trump's and Robert Kennedy's shtick is that they are anti-elite, and that they want to shake up traditional power structures. So, it's possible that the open letter will push one or more senators in a "nay" direction. However, it's also possible it will have the opposite effect, by affirming that Trump/Kennedy really are folks who will shake up the status quo.
  
  
• A Job for Habba: Trump attorney Alina Habba declined the opportunity to become White House Press Secretary, but has accepted appointment as White House Counselor. In case you are wondering what that means, Habba will essentially fill the role that was taken by Kellyanne Conway during Trump's first term. That means that, instead of dealing with a sometimes unfriendly press corps, Habba will be able to remain largely within the friendly confines of Fox, Newsmax, OAN, etc. We imagine she also wants to be right at hand in case some more important appointee, like AG-designate Pam Bondi, goes up in flames, and thus a promotion opportunity comes available.
  
  
• A Job for Lake?: Kari Lake may be crazy. Kari Lake may be someone who can't win an election, even for alternate vice-dogcatcher. Kari Lake may be unqualified for virtually any job that does not involve reading news off a little glass screen. However, at least Kari Lake is... um... well, we are sure she must have some redeeming quality.
  
  We say that because Lake, despite being effectively exiled from Mar-a-Lago, is apparently the frontrunner to be named ambassador to Mexico. Frankly, we have to imagine that appointing a whackadoodle immigration hardliner is basically trolling the Mexican government, and that if any actual diplomacy is going to be conducted, the White House will take over and handle it.
  
  
• Schiff Shifts: This is not coming from Donald Trump, but it's an appointment nonetheless, so we'll put it here. Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) resigned her (appointed) post, so that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) could get a leg up on seniority. The same thing happened, of course, in New Jersey, with Sen. George Helmy (D-NJ) stepping down to give a head start to Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ).
  
  Yesterday, both Schiff and Kim were formally sworn in by President of the Senate Kamala Harris. So, they are now Sen. Schiff and Sen. Kim. And in case you are wondering, Schiff outranks Kim. Seniority is calculated down to the day, not the minute or second, so the order in which they were sworn in does not matter. What DOES matter is that Schiff has 24 years' service in the House while Kim has 6. The only way this very slight distinction will ever matter is if both men are in running for the same committee slot, or the same office space. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) could have resigned to give Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin a bit more seniority, but she chose not to. Of course, she was an elected senator and the people Schiff and Kim are replacing were appointed.
  
  It is at least theoretically possible that the exits of two Democratic members could affect any votes held in the House between now and the commencement of the 119th Congress on January 3 of next year. However, that is not likely to be the case. The only matter the House is likely to take up is the budget, as they figure out the latest kick-the-can-down-the-road stopgap measure. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will likely have to rely on Democratic votes (see below), so this is not expected to be a skin-of-the-teeth, party-line-vote situation.

That's the news. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow. (Z)