GOP's Rush to Rubber-Stamp Trump Nominees: Destroy What We Can, While We Can
Capitol Hill Republicans may not love Trump but they know he gives them their best shot to do what they’ve been trying to accomplish for 30 years—dismantle the New Deal—so they’re rushing to get his Cabinet filled.
MICHAEL TOMASKY
01.10.17 1:00 AM ET
It was extraordinary that Walter Shaub, the director of the nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics, wrote that letter to Senate leaders last week about the slipshod vetting of many Trump Cabinet nominees. He said that he couldn’t recall any prior occasions when hearings went forward before an ethics review was completed.
Yet here is Mitch McConnell, rushing these people through as if the United States would be utterly incapacitated if they aren’t ensconced in their new positions by the day President Trump takes office. On one level it’s a small thing, whether Jeff Sessions becomes attorney general on Jan. 20 or Feb. 3 (the date in 2009 when Eric Holder was sworn in). But I think it’s a very big thing because the way this is being handled tells us something important about both Trump’s attitude toward ethics, and the Republican’s views about the Trump era.
Trump’s attitude toward ethics, we know. It’s roughly John Dillinger’s attitude toward bank guards. Shaub also noted in his letter—this will shock you—that Trump transition officials weren’t answering his emails after the election. “We seem to have lost contact with the Trump-Pence transition since the election,” Shaub wrote in a Nov. 18 message to transition aide Sean Doocey. “I will be talking to Don McGahn as soon as I can pin him down to a time for a call, which is proving to be difficult. However, I don't have confirmation from anyone on the transition team or from OMB that he is serving in any official capacity. It would help to have confirmation that he is authorized to speak for the transition.”
Let’s be generous and attribute some of the delay to confusion around the fact that they didn’t expect to win. OK, that buys them what, four days? Shaub was writing 10 days after the election.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/10/gop-s-rush-to-rubber-stamp-trump-nominees-destroy-what-we-can-while-we-can.html
