Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump has put a pair of pretty awful nominees before the Senate. One of them, Jay Clayton, got approved as DNI yesterday. The other, acting AG Todd Blanche, will probably learn later this week whether he gets to keep his job on a permanent basis.
Let us start by reminding readers why Clayton is awful. First, he has no experience relevant to being Director of National Intelligence. He was serving as a U.S. Attorney until yesterday, and in Trump v1.0, he worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission. The closest he's ever come to working in intelligence is that he's seen a couple of James Bond films. The law that created the position of DNI says that the holder of that job must have "extensive national security expertise," but apparently the Senate is not concerned with the laws that, you know, it passed.
Meanwhile, Clayton is also a partisan hack. In particular, he has been more than willing to indulge Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen by Joe Biden. Clayton's reputation as an election-denier is so well known, that was the sole focus of some of the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, particularly Jon Ossoff (GA) during the nominee's hearings. But Clayton came prepared. He knows that the five D's of Senate confirmation hearings are dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. So, he bent over backwards to avoid answering Ossoff's questions and risk offending Trump. Eventually, Clayton offered a milquetoast assent that Biden's victory might possibly have been legitimate.
In short, the best-case scenario is that Clayton will be a yes man who only tells Trump what Trump wants to hear. The worst-case scenario is that Clayton will abuse his position to help Trump lie about Iran, or lie about Cuba, or lie about Mali, or lie about elections, or all of the above. That did not matter to the 51 Republicans who voted to confirm (with Mitch McConnell, KY, not voting for obvious reasons, and Darline Graham, SC, not voting for reasons that are unclear). All 47 Democrats and independents voted against but, as the staff mathematician informs us, 47 is less than 51.
In part, the obviously unqualified Clayton got across the finish line because the Republican Senators are worried about how Trump might punish them, or their states, if they rebel. Another big part of it, however, is that the alternatives are worse. Until Clayton was confirmed, Bill Pulte was doing the job on an interim basis. Pulte is even less qualified, and even more hacky, than Clayton is. And if the Senate rejected Clayton, then Pulte might have stayed on the job for months. And then, the next nominee Trump sent to the Hill might have been an even worse horror show. DNI Michael Flynn, anyone?
And that brings us to Blanche. He's at least qualified to be AG, in that at least he's a lawyer. But if he does get the job, then on Day 1, he will already be the most corrupt person ever to hold the position. He's already participated in all kinds of chicanery, with the two most obvious acts of corruption being his efforts to bring bogus lawsuits against "enemies" of the administration like James Comey and Letitia James, and his creation of a slush fund for Trump to give out to whomever he wants, coupled with a promise that Trump will never, ever be prosecuted by the federal government for any tax (or other) crimes, even after he leaves office.
Rejecting Blanche should be a slam dunk, especially for senators like Thom Tillis (NC) and John Cornyn (TX), who are on the Judiciary Committee (and so know what an AG should look like) and whose careers are over, anyhow. However, they fear Trumpy retribution against themselves and their home states. Further, they are apparently concerned that if they reject Blanche, Trump will somehow find an even worse nominee. Though it's hard to imagine who could possibly be worse. Maybe Rudy Giuliani or Alan Dershowitz, or the reanimated corpse of John N. Mitchell.
And so, as they make clear that they definitely do not want to be included in the next edition of Profiles in Courage, Tillis and Cornyn have imposed only one meaningful condition on their Blanche votes. They want formal, legally binding paperwork that says that whatever "settlement" Trump has with the federal government, there will be no $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump cronies to distribute to other Trump cronies as they see fit. It should not be a problem for Blanche and Trump to give the senators what they want, since both have already said the slush fund is dead. And yet, Blanche and Trump have not acceded to Tillis' and Cornyn's demands, which tells you how dead the fund really is.
In theory, the Judiciary Committee is supposed to vote on the nomination tomorrow. If Tillis and Cornyn vote against, it's dead. So, will Blanche give the senators what they want? Or will the vote be postponed, so the game of chicken can be extended? Or will Tillis and Cornyn vote "nay," and poke both Trump and Blanche in the eye? We don't know which of these it will be, but we're definitely not betting on Option #3. (Z)