Top Democrats Explain Decision to Support Ben Carsons Nomination

[Linc13]

The Senate Banking Committee voted unanimously today to approve Ben Carson as President Trump‘s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. And yes, all the Democrats on the committee voted for him, including none other than Elizabeth Warren.

You may recall that during Carson’s hearings, Warren confronted him over HUD investments that could potentially enrich Trump businesses.

Warren issued a statement today saying that she still has concerns about Caron’s “inexperience in the field,” but she’s encouraged by the promises he has made for the department...

http://www.mediaite.com/online/top-democrats-explain-decision-to-support-ben-carsons-nomination/

This is why the Republicans will always win power. After a display like we had on Saturday, the Democratic party seems to be back in usual form. I don't understand the desire to be as submissive as Chris Christie is to Trump.

[Phoenix61]

1. I just don't understand

and I never will.

[pnwmom]

60. She is choosing her battles. If she furiously fought ever nominee to the same degree,

no one would pay attention.

Ben Carson is not one of the worst on the list.

[thucythucy]

2. WTF????

[Linc13]

3. Its about time...

to get people to run against candidates who are completely spineless. If the Tea Party can do it, then so should we.

[Lotusflower70]

4. They can't deny all of them

The Democrats probably figure Ben Carson is the lesser of the evils.

[Linc13]

5. So pick the guy

with a brain injury to run HUD? Or anything?

[Lotusflower70]

15. I understand that

But of the choices that are being presented, he is one that might be willing to be assisted at his job. I don't like him but they are picking and choosing their battles.

[former9thward]

18. Who have they denied?

[Lotusflower70]

19. They are still having hearings

We'll have to wait and see who makes it and who doesn't.

[uponit7771]

6. yes they can including the worse of the evils... they're more comfortable with Benedict Donald than

... their base

[Lotusflower70]

16. I don't know about that

But maybe there is a strategy to try to minimize the potential damage by Trump. At least where they have a voice.

[Cha]

34. Senator Gillibrand did

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8533394

[Bohunk68]

45. I'm on her fb list and she posted it to the group.

The only Dem with a spine. She and the Senator for Wall Street aka Chuck Schumer, disagree a lot. She does very good constituent service. I would like to see her run in 2020.

[Cha]

47. Good to know.. thank you.

I use to live in New York for 12 years until 2010.

[Lotusflower70]

57. She is awesome

And definitely an exception to the rule.

[uponit7771]

59. yes they can

[Lotusflower70]

67. They could

But with the divide in the party, there is no agreement to do so.

[bermudat]

68. Why not?

What do they gain-nothing, what do they lose-the respect of those of us who sent them to Congress.

[Lotusflower70]

70. It's a long fight

Pick and choose your battles. The other options besides Carson were worse. I knew not all the Democrats would agree to deny them all.

[Linc13]

8. Make a call, show up at their

offices, raise hell at the town halls. I've had enough of this bullshit. They are going to kill this movement that was created just by being spineless.

[kairos12]

9. The Reich Wing blocks Obama for 8 years, Democrats block Drumpt for 2 days, if that.

[Cha]

35. Senator Gillibrand blocked all of them

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8533394

[Bohunk68]

46. Kirsten -----2020

[Solly Mack]

10. A president does not deserve the cabinet/heads of their choice if said choices

are unqualified for the position, not to mention someone who will do everything in their power to destroy the very cabinet/department they will head.

Treating Trump (and his cabinet picks) as anything other than a threat to America and Americans is as delusional as Trump is himself

No one is protecting America's democracy by pretending that it will somehow work out for the best in the end.

Now is not the time to hope for the best. Now is the time to fight.

[Cha]

36. PSA.. Senator Gillibrand blocked all of them

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8533394

[Solly Mack]

58. Thanks, Cha

[LenaBaby61]

11. Wait ....

Elizabeth Warren believes the promises Carson made to her?

Oh Lord

Oh Liz

[bdamomma]

22. Rubio said the same thing about Tillerson

Tillerson said one thing and Rubio made an about face and voted for him. What is the Dems strategy????

This man will not work with the Democratic party, he is always talking about himself.

[Wiseman32218]

32. I emailed Rubio to vote against Tillerson, the robotic response came back there is not enough to

deny him the post

[Cha]

37. Senator Kristen Gillibrand blocked all of them

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8533394

[former9thward]

61. She did not block any of them.

1 vote out of a 100 does not block anything.

[ehrnst]

12. Or maybe we don't know what battles are actually being fought

This whole madonna/whore saint/sinner thing any time there is any vote is what will fucking kill us.

She's smart. She and the other Dems haven't become morons overnight.

We don't have any clue what is going on behind the doors there, and to act like we do, and treat this as some sort of stock market that our entire life savings is in on every vote isn't realistic.

Run around with your hair on fire if you want, but I'm going to give this a chance, and trust that they are playing the long game.

Politics is sausage, and we need to remember that when we are looking at every little thing that goes in it. WHICH IS NOT THE SAME as being sheep.

[GoCubsGo]

17. Yep. They have to pick their battles.

They can't block 'em all, and as bad as he is, Carson is far from the worst of the cabinet nominees.

[Linc13]

25. Did the Rebulicans

vote for any of Obama's?

[PoliticAverse]

27. Yes. There's actually a Wikipedia page with details...

Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmations_of_Barack_Obama%27s_Cabinet

[True Dough]

28. I don't have the time to go through an exhaustive list

but the answer is yes.


John Kerry (2013–2017)
Hillary Clinton had announced she would not stay on in a second Obama term. Obama nominated Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts as his Secretary of State. On January 29, 2013, John F. Kerry was confirmed by the Senate in a 94–3 vote to be Secretary of State.[15] John Kerry took office on February 1, 2013.

Leon Panetta (2011–2013)
On April 18, 2011 Leon Panetta, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was nominated to replace Gates. On June 21, 2011, the United States Senate confirmed Panetta in a 100–0 vote.[49] He took office on June 30, 2011.

Ashton Carter (2015–2017)
On December 5, 2014 President Obama nominated former Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter as his fourth Secretary of Defense.[60] On February 12, 2015 the Senate confirmed Carter in a 93–5 vote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmations_of_Barack_Obama's_Cabinet


Obstruction for the sake of obstruction just isn't good government. I agree that the Dems need to pick their spots. What's of greater concern is the YUGE number of vacancies within the Trump administration. The secretary positions are being filled but most of the subordinate roles are unfilled. Then again, what does Don the Con care? He's signing several executive orders a day. He doesn't need Congress or the Senate!

[Linc13]

30. My point is...

if they are going to go through anyway then why help hold the ladder?

[ehrnst]

54. There is a saying called "keeping your powder dry"

for when the ammunition will be most effective.

Contrary to what we may see - there is a limited amount of political capital, like ammunition.

I would have accepted a deal that if the GOP hears and confirms Garland, that the Dems would not refuse to hear the next nominee.

Now that might infuriate purists, who think that we should block every nominee, but that is the way things work. You give the GOP something to lose by not cooperating with you.

If you decide to simply not cooperate, they have nothing to gain down the line by listening to you.

In fact the GOP did go along with some Obama Cabinet picks, because they knew that they needed to be in position to deal at some point.

Despite appearances, they didn't block everything. They only had limited ammuntion.

Politics is also about making the gears run, and if they don't run, people get pissy with the politicians. Holding their feet to the fire is one thing - burning them at the stake for every single goddamned vote that certain progressive "leaders" don't like will backfire.

Liz Warren gets called deified, then called heretic on a daily basis, and she is neither of those things. She's an effective, articulate POLITICIAN, and we should trust that she knows more about the situation than we do - especially if a whole lot of other dems are going along with her.

[LisaL]

40. They can't block any of them, can they?

So what exactly is the point of picking the battle?

[Bohunk68]

49. Taking a stand. Just like those of us who participated in the demonstrations

last Saturday. I would hope that you understand why that action was necessary.

[ehrnst]

55. The GOP can simply shorten the hearing times more - and that gives dems less time

to expose how incredibly bad most of the Cabinet nominees.

The worst enemy is the one with nothing left to lose - and we need to give the GOP something to lose, like a smooth pass for less onerous picks.

Carson may not be a good cabinet pick, but he doesn't have the ethics issues and problems that others do. So wasting ammunition grilling him that could be used for worse candidates is a good strategy.

Again, politics is dealmaking. And that does not = sellling out, if it can mitigate damage.

Sometimes playing "purist" causes a politician to be much less effective at actually getting us moving in the progressive direction.

[MrScorpio]

13. They're handing Trump enough to hang himself

We need to get control of Congress back, so that we can get some oversight investigations on.

If these people aren't indicted in a couple of years, we haven't been doing our damn jobs.


FDT.

[spanone]

14. perfect....carson has done nothing outside of medicine other than promote himself

he is uniquely unqualified to be in government. period.

[bdamomma]

24. as the rest of them

no experience whatsoever.

[DonCoquixote]

43. if he was Surgeon General

yes I would hate it, I would at least admit he is a surgeon. The very idea of someone who has no experience in hard running the agency is the sort of thing that would make a very good cartoon, but will not make a well governed nation.

[alarimer]

20. What is wrong with voting against ALL of his nominees.

They will still get in, but the Democrats will at least have sent a message.

I'm disappointed that they appear collectively to have lost their spines.

[Foo Fighter]

31. Exactly.

A Dem that can't seem to bring themselves to oppose Trump on his drastically unqualified nominees should just call it a day and resign or switch parties.

Granted, voting against the nominees would be a largely symbolic gesture but if they can't even manage that, what good are they? It's not like they're only allotted a certain amount of "no" votes when they take office so they need to save them for something "really special."

Sorry but "Republican Lite" just isn't going to cut it anymore. Not when so much is at stake. Now is not the time to "keep your powder dry." If they can't bring themselves to oppose Trump, who will they oppose?

[Bohunk68]

48. +1,000 Pretty much the way I am seeing it also.

To do otherwise is to bend over and grab your ankles, something that many of my fellow Dems are good at.

[DavidDvorkin]

21. I guess they're playing multidimensional chess

I can't think of any other reason.

[Azathoth]

23. They've been aching for eight years to surrender to GOP insanity

Prediction: One of the key debate questions posed to every major 2020 Dem primary candidate is going to be: "Sen. So-and-so, why did you vote for Mr. Trump's invasion of {fill in the blank}, and why did you only admit your 'mistake' three days before you entered the primary?"

[hibbing]

26. Waiit until the tax cuts

For the ruling class come up and see how many Democrats vote for them.

Peace

[stevenleser]

29. Every single Democrat on the senate Foreign Rel committee voted against Tillerson.

They have separated Trump nominees into marginal, not good and terrible and are voting against the terribles.

[LisaL]

38. As it makes no difference in the end, it's hard to understand the reasoning.

They might as well not vote for any of them, the end result will be the same. So why are they voting for some of them, or why they are splitting them into groups, as if that is going to make a difference?

[DonCoquixote]

42. iif nothing else

every vote nay shows a commitment, it shows a line that was drawn in the sand, much the way Mitch McConnell did when he said he would try to make Obama "one term president." every yes vote, even if someone actually happens to be rather good, will be interpreted and exploited as approval of the very very worst.

[stevenleser]

56. It is a counter to the argument that Trump would make if & when he fails that it is because the

Democrats fought and obstructed him.

We fought the horrible and/or obviously incompetent ones and the rest we acknowledged a President's right to have the advisors he wants to have.

[Cha]

33. Senator Kristen Gillibrand voted against all nominees..

Link to tweet

[Bohunk68]

50. +1,000

[Cha]

51. lol

[mvd]

53. I will indeed remember

I haven't given up on Warren, but Gillibrand has been very impressive as Senator. Maybe even more so than Warren lately. Thanks for posting!

[Paladin]

63. That's what a Democratic Senator OUGHT to be doing. (nt)

[Cha]

64. I know, right

[Cha]

65. P.S.

Link to tweet

[Paladin]

66. +1000. (nt)

[TeamPooka]

39. what part of make the GOP own every nominee don't they unerstand?

[DonCoquixote]

41. Et Tu Warren?

I can understand the usual suspects in the Democratic Party being willing to let Ben Carson in, not you. You of all people should know that to give these people a slice is to give them the whole damn loaf. You were supposed to be the one who in 2020 would help get this party back on track, helping to pull its head out of its arse. I guess you're willing to flirt with the dark side.

[treestar]

44. i demand that she go under the bus

Seriously? Enough of the Warren worship. Now admit she is as bad as the rest.

[Vinca]

52. WTF??? He has one qualification: he's lived in a house.

Goddamn Democrats. We need a "go fund me" page to get them some spines.

[Paladin]

62. I'm ashamed of Elizabeth Warren. I never thought that would happen.

I intend on emailing her office and telling her exactly that. When one of our party's most respected fighters throws in the towel for an idiot like Carson, what's the point of continuing the opposition?

Jesus, how demoralizing.

[ananda]

69. Boy that was a pisspoor excuse.

Warren, all Dems, the answer to anything Trump and the GOP
wants is NO!

All the time, every time.