Talk Elections

Forgive me US Gen Discussion mods if this thread is considered unnecessary.  If you want to discuss the confirmation hearings in the “Trump transition” thread, feel free to merge.  But it seems like the confirmation hearings are a big enough deal on their own to merit their own thread.  I already started a thread on the 2020 board about the likely 2020 presidential candidates and how they’ll vote on confirmation, but this thread would be for up-to-the-minute discussion of the hearings themselves.  They start tomorrow morning:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/politics/when-are-the-cabinet-senate-confirmation-hearings/

DeVos' hearing has been delayed until January 17.

Grassley is giving his opening remarks for the sessions hearing.

Khizr Khan, two DREAMers, and Al Sharpton are there as guests of Senate Democrats.

Hearings are always horrible.  All each Senator wants to do is hear himself talk and see himself on TV later in the day.......they are all horrible.

People in KKK robes and Code Pink people keep protesting inside the room and interrupting the hearing.

Protesters working hard to make sure sessions gets confirmed

Good.

Sessions was getting confirmed regardless. Right now it's probably going to be a very slim margin for him though.

Every one of Trump's choices are going to get confirmed except possibility Tillerson.

But this helps him look dignified and statesmanlike by comparison

It makes him look controversial and unpopular. 

Lol im sure the screaming feminazis and kkk robes are winning over america as we speak

Ignore them at your own peril. I thought the same thing about the tea party.

Mnuchin could seriously make it as well, they are bringing people who lost their lives & livelihood. There will be something in his financial statements which will cause problems for sure.

I think if Dems can get the 48 voting bloc, 3 votes can be received. McCain is a Glass Steagal guy (McCain-Feingold act). So if there's problem maybe you need 2 more. Maybe Graham.

And maybe Flake or Paul if there is a big conflict of interest problem. Same with Tillerson, if you get 48 votes, McCain & Graham could make it 50 & then you need only 1 more out of 50 GOP guy & I am sure there are some Russia hawks in there.

The EPA guy should have been target No.1 in a Dem Senate but not with Manchin & the GOP people.

Sessions will win 60+ votes, the guy served in the Senate with these people!

I'll be curious to see what the Dems do with Mattis.  While they can't filibuster any of the nominations directly, they can filibuster the waiver Mattis would need to be cleared for taking a Defense job, and Gillibrand says she's going to try to filibuster it.

But my guess is that enough Dems will choose not to go along that this won't be a problem.  Mattis just hasn't attracted as much controversy as the others.

LMAO! They still don't get it.

Can't believe that someone who voted against the Violence Against Women act will be our next Attorney General.

A guy who bragged about committing violence against women will be our President.

Once again, Americans get overestimated.

These shrieking purple haired chicks need to realize that heckling Congress never works.

Joe Wilson sure got punished harshly *nod*

Sadly, you're right. Dems are dumb pt. 267373

Should be noted that one of the DREAMers is a War in Afghanistan vet.

I love it when the Senate eats its own......glorious.

Updated hearing schedule:

https://qz.com/881104/nine-confirmation-hearings-one-trump-news-conference-and-obamas-farewell-a-guide-to-the-week-in-us-politics/

So when do they actually vote on these guys?

The committee will vote shortly after the hearings conclude.  Then McConnell puts it on the schedule for the Senate to vote.

I hate to be "that guy," but has anyone questioned Sessions about pot yet?

Sessions will get all GOPers plus Manchin, Nelson, and probably Donnelly, maybe some of the other red state dems as well.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-sessions-leaves-door-open-to-reigniting-1484081088-htmlstory.html

He was asked and his answer was pretty much "I won't not enforce federal law".

Pretty much, stock up on plants/seeds if you haven't already

Jeff Sessions is going to be the greatest attorney general in American history. I can feel it in my head, heart, and guts. What a magnificent session.

Sessions will probably be okay given that he freely gave out the Olive Branches of recusing himself from any further investigations against Clinton or her foundation, and enforcing Roe and Obergefell. My estimate of the Confirmation vote is 56-44 in favor.

He didn't commit to reversing the Cole Memo, either, though.  This might ultimately wind up in Trump's court, and he's much more favorable to the state's rights position on this.

The question remains if Trump is willing to let Sessions devote so much public funds and political capital to raiding marijuana shops in the states that legalized it, including the deep red state of Alaska.  That wouldn't be a smart move on his part.

Some reason for optimism? (http://stuffstonerslike.com/2017/01/jeff-sessions-will-not-enforce-federal-marijuana-prohibition-in-legal-marijuana-states/)

If he does this, then ok, I can live with it. I still would consider him unqualified and wrong on many things, but that's probably as good as a trump cabinet member could be.

Oh, I'm sure he'll find federal laws he'll be happy to "not enforce".

Yeah... I'd like to know whether he won't not enforce the federal law against giving your son-in-law a senior White House position.

It sounds like the hearings on Kelly are already over.  However, they'll "officially" remain open until 5pm tomorrow, in case anyone wants to add anything to the public record before then.  So I'm assuming no committee vote until then.  So no committee votes being held today on any of the nominees.  Presumably we'll start getting those tomorrow?

The Tillerson hearing is starting now.......should be fun.

Coretta Scott King wrote a letter opposing Sessions’s 1986 federal judge nomination. Unavailable to the public until now. It is scathing. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/10/read-the-letter-coretta-scott-king-wrote-opposing-sessionss-1986-federal-nomination/?utm_term=.469b089a356f)

I agree with sessions argument on merit, though. With so many states legalizing, Congress really should clarify drug laws to give them more leeway

Tillerson questioning is going on. His continued use of the phrase "the Ukraine" does not help anything.

I'm just curious for Carson and Puzder.

Can Tillerson answer a question?

Rubio's asking Tillerson questions like "Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?"

His whole line of questioning on Russia doesn't make it sound like he's that keen to vote in favor of confirmation.

Yeah Rubio sounds like a "no" vote. He's going after Tillerson much more harshly than the Dems did.

Unless a Democrat defects, I don't see how Tillerson gets confirmed.

I think it will be a 50-50 tie with Pence having the decisive vote in the end.

He may even struggle to get out of committee.

Yeah, the GOP only has a 1 vote advantage on the committee, so if Rubio (or any other Republican) votes no, and all the Dems on the committee vote no, that's it.

Rex Tillerson tells senators he and Trump haven't discussed Russia yet. :o

That would be a big defeat for the Trumpster. Not sure whether the GOP is doing that. I wonder what Tweets he’ll send out in that scenario?

Anyone know who runs the State Department after January 20, if Tillerson isn’t through by then? An interim appointment? I guess Kerry is gone as soon as Obama left.


LOL! The dude knows that he’s under oath, right?

This isn't going to help with the GOP Hawks.

Even Bob Corker is contradicting Tillerson:

A lot of things with which I disagree with Rubio on, but right now he's making me proud.

That sentiment will change if he voted this huckster out of committee

Flawless Beautiful Marco <3333

The Rubio love is a bit sickening........

Little Marco will only act tough but not vote against Trump!

It's pretty much illegal to criticize him on Atlas.

This is my guess as well.

If Rubio is a No, isn't Tillerson dead in committee?

Yes

While it would be highly unusual to do so, my understanding is that if McConnell wanted to, he could bypass the committee and bring it directly to the floor of the Senate.  That said, if Rubio is a no, then I'm assuming Graham and McCain are also no's, so I'm not sure it would help anything, unless he's counting on Democratic defectors like Manchin.

Cory Booker and John Lewis are such hacks. Lewis said literally nothing about Jeff Sessions, he just got his fake MLK shtick going and implied that any white person from the south was ineligible to be in government.

I'm actually really curious to see how Ben Carson's hearing goes tomorrow, given that (AFAIK) his main qualification for leading HUD is that he's black(!).

Then congressman Richmond comes up and mentions the 3/5 thing clearly without understanding that the purpose of it was to stop slaveowners from getting more power.

It was a compromise that gave slave owners 3/5ths of exactly what they wanted.

It is not at all clear that the alternative was for slaves to be counted as whole persons for purposes of apportionment. It is entirely possible that "all other persons" would not have been counted at all. After all, the compromise originated in the Articles of Confederation, where it related not to apportionment but rather the amount of tax each state owed to the central government (which was determined by population, with slaves counted, after the compromise, as three-fifths of a person). So the slave states initially favored slaves not being counted at all.

Oh yeah the guy who marched at Selma, was a freedom rider and lead the SNCC is clearly doing a 'fake' shtick. Such stupidity

Rubio just came back... trying to get Rex Tillerson to agree that Saudi Arabia and the new leader in the Phillipines are terrible human rights violators.

Has he become a Democrat?

You had to have watched other confirmation hearings before this one.  There's always a few who need to put on a show for the cameras.  It's just sport.  I doubt he cares about half of what he's asking.  But if this thread was national news, the Rubio mentions and faux Rubio love would have him grinning ear to ear.

If Rubio truly has  set of balls, he'll vote, no.  We'll see.

I might be wrong, but I do not foresee a lot of resistance to Tillerson.  Bar a few hiccups, I think he's done quite well today, certainly better than I expected.  He's a smart cookie.

Definitely not a dumb man, but I still, cannot, support his nomination as a concerned American. I want more solid answers from him key issues facing the country.

I side w/ McCain and Graham still atm.

Boy, his answer on the Muslim registry was weak.  He should have just said "no".

Yeah, the Dems have never done that in the history of confirmations, have they.  ::)

In case you don't think these hearings are more than chance to hear themselves talk -

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cory-booker-lays-groundwork-for-2020-run-at-jeff-sessions-hearings/ar-BByapts?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

For a CEO of Exxon and holder of the Russian Order of Friendship, no, I don't think they have.

You're not going to like the next 4 years much.  :(

Balls? Rubio?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yep, that's why I think he's just being Captain Blowhard.

Tillerson's responses on the Ukrainian question concern me; I think he is too anti-Russia and too similar in his stances to #NeverTrumpers McCain and Graham. I would not vote for him if I was Senator, and would plead for a more acceptable candidate, such as Rohrabacher. But if I knew for certain Tillerson was lying (which is certainly possible), then I would vote for him.

I think Tillerson is an acceptable candidate for who he is, but not for his answers.

Oh my god I hope you're not serious...

Booker actually seemed to be saying that he expects Tillerson will be confirmed.  It sounds like at least some of the Dems might not be that bothered with the Russia angle on Tillerson, and might vote him out of committee, meaning he'd reach the Senate floor even if Rubio defects and votes no.

I wouldn't vote for Tillerson if I was in the Senate, but he's one of the least offensive Trump picks.  I'm more concerned with Sessions, Puzder, Price, Carson, Perry, DeVos and Pruitt.

Having seen some parts of Tillerson's hearings I can concede that the man is smart, but yes, he should not be Secretary of State. I think he'll be confirmed anyway, but I wish it had been a different pick.

-I very much am. When Tillerson denies Russia's rightful claim over Krim and says "I would have recommended that the Ukraine take all of its military assets it had available, put them on that eastern border, provide those assets with defensive weapons that are necessary just to defend themselves", that is a recipe for worsened relations and greater confrontation. Ukraine is not a part of NATO; it is a loser country with people who are nearly incapable of coordinating themselves, but are more than capable of ripping America off. It was poorer than China (China! Who would have thought that in 1990?) before the war; the present government is less popular than Yanukovich's at its worst (much less Putin's at its worst), and Ukraine is not a U.S. ally in any sense, and America has no commitments whatsoever to its defense. Putin's actions in relation to that country were more than justified by U.S. support for its completely unconstitutional parliamentary coup.


-I think Perry and Carson are simply unqualified, and Puzder an enemy of the working class. Sessions is somewhat too pro-surveillance and a bit too much of a drug warrior, but is a Trump loyalist and a strong friend of the border. Cruz is for him, Amash is not a fan. Would not be sure what to do with him.

The others I have no strong feelings on, and would probably vote for if I was in the Senate.

Oh. I see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDnj-PV1-tc

Rubio is hinting he'll vote no on Tillerson on CNN

I guess he's already started his 2020 campaign.

I don't see how this gets out of committee if that's the case.

Does anyone know when the committee's will start voting?

The Tillerson hearing has concluded. No additional testimony tomorrow.

The plot thickens...

Wonder who The Donald's backup would be?

Corker?

what about ROMNEY?

Probably. Wouldn't be the worst, honestly

The worst would be Romney. I oppose Tillerson for his excessive Russophobia. Rohrabacher, who truly understands Putin and has a solid grasp of foreign affairs, would be best.

Both Corker and Romney would be confirmed ~97-0. There was no reason Trump needed to use Tillerson.

Oh God kill me now.

-Nope. Both would have substantial Democratic opposition and neither has as much experience negotiating with foreign countries as Tillerson. Romney, to my knowledge, doesn't have any such experience at all (except for being a Mormon missionary in France, which is underwhelming), making him an easy Democratic target for this. If we're only going to look at people with carbon-copy views on the issues, it's best to appoint the guy who has the most experience at negotiating and winning overseas.

Obviously, Rohrabacher would be best overall, as he is on record supporting Trump and has broad agreement with his foreign policy views. Tillerson, Corker, and Romney are not in broad agreement with Trump's foreign policy views.

Tillerson isn't really Russophobic. He's just criticizing them a bunch so congress doesn't think he's in bed with them because of his comments about Russia when he was with Exxon.

Yeah no kidding

Yeah, Tillerson is just trying to compensate for his obvious connections with the Russian government.

Do you know how confirmation works or what?

Bob Corker is widely respected across the aisle for his foreign policy experience.

-Corker would have the easiest time getting confirmed of the known candidates. It is highly doubtful, however, that the Democratic Party would be unified in favor of him. Given that Corker is a Republican, a fairly large group of extreme Democrats (such as Warren, Booker, and Sanders) would no doubt come out to oppose his confirmation, if purely for the anti-Trump signaling value and their general opposition to anything Republican.

Both Corker and Romney would relieve me to some extent. I may have some differences with them on various issues, but they’re decent guys who understand the world. For sure, Tillerson is a smart guy. But being a successful businessman doesn’t translate into a good Secretary of State. I am also worried about his conflicts of interest with his former employer and his closeness to Russia. The best GOP choice would be Jon Huntsman, but the chance that is happening is practically zero. The orange clown isn’t smart enough to pick this dude.

lol

Still stunned Trump, who actually knows something about housing, couldn't find some real estate buddy to run HUD instead of this hack

If you want to hook Carson up with a job, make him Surgeon General. He'd be good at it!

You guys seen that TV show where Jack Bauer is HUD sec and becomes president because of the line of succession? Would be hilarious if it happened with this guy.

One of the many, many grand problems of dealing with the incoming Pussygrabber Presidency is that the superficial awfulness, which is almost comic, serves to obscure the underlying and ultimately destructive dangers and horror it represents.

Watching the incoming Trump administration is like a watching the antics of a stupid, violent, drunk on some reality TV show... and then realizing they're the sole parent for three young children.

Harris asking CIA Director-designate the important questions... about gay marriage. lol

Trump had no clue what HUD does.  We're talking about a guy who thought the EPA was called The Department of Environmental.  He probably just saw Urban and he thought it deals with "Urban" issues, so why not just put an "Urban" guy there.

WSJ says Graham, McCain, and Rubio all claim to be undecided on whether to vote for confirmation of Tillerson:

http://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/hearings

Meanwhile, Paul says he's "inclined to support" Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ByronTau/status/819605660744777729

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/819608462053228546

wow just wow

As for Tillerson, he's probably a lot better than the alternatives.  Do people really want Corker to become SoS?  ugh

Interesting

Given that I'm still not sure Trump (or anyone on his transition team) understands what the DoE does, this seems terrifyingly plausible.

I'll believe it if/when it happens

LOL Carson. I just saw a brief clip of his hearing. I have a feeling this guy hasn't clue of anything in politics.

One of the nominees that concerns me least is actually Tillerson. I don't share all of his views, but he's certainly a smart and tough cookie. As a senator, I would lean to vote for him. Usually I'm not a fan of Rand Paul, but he did a good job there.

However, the best job to date did Al Franken when he grilled Sessions, who tried to downplay his anti-civil-rights record.

It's hilarious that so many of you think Sessions is going to work in a white robe and hood.  Lunacy.

Don't be silly, he already tried to trade it for a black robe and gavel during the Reagan years.

Mattis granted waiver by Senate in order to qualify as Defense Secretary


http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/politics/james-mattis-defense-confirmation/ (http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/politics/james-mattis-defense-confirmation/)

Tillerson is a crony but he is a smart guy. Carson is flat out stupid!

"Child Molester" Pathological Super Low Energy Ben Carson in Trump's words!

How is it possible that highly incompetent persons like Gilliband and Harris are on such important commitees??? I'm deeply shocked by the scale of silliness in their questions. Pure ideology, not a single piece of understanding for what Mattis/Pompeo have to do. Simply crazy...

I really wouldn't mind if Carson goes down in flames......

Rand Paul says he will vote to confirm Tillerson for State.

Abby D. Phillip ‏@abbydphillip  3h3 hours ago
Sen. Rand Paul says on CNN that he'll vote to confirm Rex Tillerson. "I was very impressed."

The idea that any Republicans' are qualified to weigh in on the competence of elected officials is laughable.

Their party leader is a reality TV star who lacks even basic understanding on a huge range of issues and struggles with grade-school level English.

Confirmation hearings this week:

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/16/509878778/cabinet-nominees-will-face-scrutiny-on-climate-and-education-policy-this-week

Tuesday:
10am: Ryan Zinke (Interior)
5pm: Betsy DeVos (Education)

Wednesday:
10am: Nikki Haley (UN Ambassador)
10am: Tom Price (HHS)
10am: Scott Pruitt (EPA)
10am: Wilbur Ross (Commerce)

Thursday:
10am: Steven Mnuchin (Treasury)
10am: Rick Perry (Energy)

After this week, I think the only Cabinet picks left to have not had confirmation hearings are Labor (Puzder), Veterans Affairs (Shulkin), and Agriculture (weirdly, Trump still hasn’t appointed anyone to this job), though I’m unclear on which “Cabinet-level officials” require confirmation hearings.  Do Trade Rep and OMB director require Senate confirmation?

Is he keeping Vilsack?

No. Might pick Perdue.

Monica Crowley is no longer headed to NSC. Hopefully they pick somebody better this time around.

Heh. It's Trump, so I'll be somewhat shocked if it's not someone worse.

Is there any chance he might be doing away with the agency?

I think by his choices (like HUD, Education, Energy) he intends to get rid of several.

But he can't unilaterally abolish a department.

When did they have hearings for Carson? I didn't know about that.

Does anyone know what the process is?  Also what happens to the people who work for that department?  Are they moved to a different one or are they fired?

IIRC, it was Thursday of last week.  It was on at the same time as the hearings for Mattis and Pompeo.

A law is passed by Congress. And that law would also determine the process. Most likely most of them would be fired.

Well in that case the Democrats should filibuster any such attempts by Republicans.  Most federal agencies have thousands, in some cases tens of thousands of employees if you include regional offices and state government offices that are funded by the federal agency.
I understand that some federal agencies may be obsolete, but having worked at a government agency which does very important work while Republicans often talk of getting rid of it, I am very skeptical of any such efforts. 

News on Puzder: Obviously, his hearing has been delayed until February. Rumors spread that even Puzder himself is considering to drop out of the whole thing (CNN (http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/16/politics/andrew-andy-puzder-labor-trump/), DailyCaller (http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/16/report-trumps-labor-secretary-pick-may-drop-out-over-criticism/)). Hopefully that is true or he simply doesn’t get confirmed. This dude is a horrible pick.

I hope so.

At a guess, it's to do with the domestic violence allegations.

Almost certainly. I imagine Victoria Lipnic (the early front runner) is the backup

Please let it be true. He and Price are the worst choices the Donald has made.

Betsy DeVos is being interviewed now.

Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, GOP Congressman Ryan Zinke, faced an intense line of questioning on Tuesday when Sen. Bernie Sanders took him to task for some of his more troubling climate change beliefs.

“I’m not a climate scientist expert, but I can tell you I will become a lot more familiar with it … I don’t know definitively – there’s a lot of debate on both sides of the aisle” when it comes to how people are affecting the climate.

At that point, Sanders stopped Zinke in his tracks to correct him.

“Actually, there’s not a whole lot of debate now,” Sanders said. “The scientific community is virtually unanimous that climate change is real and causing devastating problems. There is a debate on this committee, but not within the scientific community.”

Sanders to Betsy - Is is true that your family has given around 200M $ to Trump & the Republican party over the years

Betsy - Yes it is possible that is the number

Sanders - Do you think you will be sitting here as the nominee if you hadn't paid paid 100's of Millions of $ in campaign contributions?

Betsy - It is possible, I did this...Blah blah...for Children...Blah Blah

-Oh, he's one of the worst. Way too Jeb-style.

Warren is absolutely running in 2020 I feel. She was savage against Betsy, absolutely destroyed her point by point. She is just damn good. She would be a much bigger leader if only she had more guts & less of a calculating mind.

Sanders was more like - How can you make College affordable? Do you support Tuition Free College? What about Childcare being expensive for a single mom making 30K, what are your ideas? Blah Blah

Warren is like Do you wanna stop Waste Fraud n Abuse? Then how do we get crooks to stop cheating people by making organizations like Trump University & then getting away with a fine?

Yeah, Warren is pretty clinical at shredding unqualified hacks like DeVos, which is why I think she should remain in the Senate.

Yes, but as long as the political environment is such that senate republicans will auto-confirm said unqualified hacks regardless of how badly they get shredded in their hearings, the Senate may not be the place where Warren's skills are most effectively put to use.

I have now found out we need to have guns in schools due to grizzly bear attacks? What?

Guns for babies because of mountain lions, coming soon. ™

Warren is actually a strong VP pick as well as a strong leader in the Senate with a progressive President regardless of who is the POTUS. Any1 can be the leader but you can't touch Ted Kennedy.

Just makes me sad to consider how great a Bernie-Liz team would be on the ticket in 2016. Hillary probably should have chosen her. Imagine Warren vs Pence instead of this low energy uncharismatic (but nice man) Tim Kaine. Warren would have shredded Pence.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/jeff-sessions-cabinet-233727

I believe DeVos, Carson, and Tillerson should be shot down; DeVos was especially bad.

The Queen of the Dutch Mafia should be voted down, and in a sane world would be. But her family money is tied up with too many Republicans for her to actually voted down on qualifications. Unless some scandal material is uncovered soon she will be confirmed.

Yeah the problem is that unless there's a scandal (like Price with this stock fixing) or concern from R's (like with Tillerson) then they're just going to sail through after a couple of scathing attacks from the Democrats

That EPA guy doesn't even believe in Climate Change & has attacked the EPA throughout his life. And then Price is horrible too on healthcare. Really bad picks. A Dem Senate would have kept some of these nominees in check & Trump had to nominate some moderates.

Coming from someone in the educational field, DeVos is one of the worst. I really REALLY hope this opponent of public education gets voted down, but I doubt she will.

Ralston thinks Sen. Heller will vote NO on Mnuchin.

Democrats are only planning on allowing confirmation votes on Mattis and Kelly tomorrow.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/mick-mulvaney-taxes-confirmation/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/mick-mulvaney-taxes-confirmation/index.html)

So I forget how it works: Do all of Obama's Cabinet officials resign tomorrow, and the unfilled Cabinet spots are temporarily presided over by their deputies?  E.g., this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Filip

was the Deputy Attorney General under Mukasey, then Mukasey quit on Jan. 20th, 2009 when Obama was sworn in, and Filip stayed on as acting Attorney General for two weeks before Holder was confirmed.  I assume that's how it's going to work for all of these departments?

I found the answer to my own question here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/day-inauguration-state-department-lacks-interim-boss-44878550

His line of questioning on Nevada foreclosures signals to me he will be hard to defeat in 2018.

Whoa if true

McCain supports Glass Steagal etc so maybe he could be worked on for Mnuchin. But I think Mnuchin goes through, they pay too much money for people like Booker to Gillibrand!

Apparently Mnuchin failed to disclose 100M$ assets & massive money stashed in Cayman islands & tax havens!

Mattis confirmed as Secretary of Defense in a unanimous vote:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/20/mad-dog-mattis-confirmed-as-defense-secretary-first-trump-cabinet-member-to-be-approved.html

Look at the Wikipedia page for "Current Cabinet of the United States":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_the_United_States#Cabinet

The vast majority of the Cabinet right now is composed of deputy officials who don't even have a Wikipedia page.  :P

At the time that article was written, the vote was unanimous, but voting was still in progress.  Looks like it ended up not quite being unanimous:

https://twitter.com/CQnow/status/822569447722455040

Is there a list anywhere of when each confirmation vote will be held?

Mattis is the best Trump nom by a mile. Still don't get why she made this her hill to die on

Kelly was confirmed by a vote of 88-11 for Homeland Security.  According to DDHQ, the no votes were Wyden, Merkley, Harris, Cortez-Masto, Udall, Heinrich, Van Hollen, Booker, Gillibrand, Blumenthal, and Warren.

Sounds like Gillibrand believes he wasn't good enough to be worth throwing out the law on and scrapping civilian oversight of the military.

I despise Gillibrand and I wish someone would primary her, but I would have also voted against Mattis for this exact reason.

Yep, and she's absolutely right!

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/823179101796081665

I guess Russia isn't a threat anymore. What a joke move by McCain. Rubio might even have more of a spine than him on this one (though maybe not, we'll see).

So Tillerson gets through 51-50 even if Graham and Rubio act on principle-like motivations. Lovely.

Graham also says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/mccain-tillerson-senate-confirm-233989

Rubio still hasn't announced his decision.

Does this mean that for once in his life Rubio might've actually decided to grow a pair after all?  

More importantly, this is beyond pathetic.  It's like every time McCain seems like he can't possibly sink any lower, he always manages to find a way.  We now have someone who had been among the most vocal and uncompromising hawks in the Senate voting to confirm a blatantly unqualified Russian stooge as Secretary of State because the nomination came from a Republican "President" with almost literally no knowledge of foreign affairs whose best known interaction with McCain had been to attack him for being a POW (saying, among other things, "I like guys who don't get captured").  We already have the Moscovite Candidate in the Oval Office, a National Security Advisor who truly cannot be trusted to put America's interests ahead of those of the Russian government, and now we may have another Russian puppet/corrupt guy who sold his soul to Putin/useful idiot (take your pick) at State because John McCain is apparently worried that some people might still think he has some semblance of a soul.  I never thought I could have a lower opinion of him than I already did, but...wow.  I get that "country first" doesn't really mean much to McCain anymore, but this is pretty disgusting.

Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, keeping people like Flynn and Tillerson out of office should be a no-brainer.  The only reason to cheer on something like this is if you're a soulless hack or just such a petty, sheltered, selfish, and all-around pathetic manchild that you blindly cheer for anything that makes people in the other party scared or upset regardless of who will get hurt or the damage it could do to America (and we do admittedly have some of those on the forum).  This is different than just trash-talking fans of a rival sports team.  Politics is not a game (despite what some on the forum may think) and when you treat it like one the way many Americans have been since 2010, people get hurt.    

It should frighten everyone that national security posts are being given to people who may actively work to pursue the interests of a foreign government (and a hostile one at that) rather than those of their own country.  Even if you think I'm wrong about Tillerson and Flynn or I'm exaggerating/being melodramatic, how are Flynn's close ties to the Russian government or Tillerson's clear lack of any meaningful qualifications for SoS not highly alarming at best?


Give me a f***ing break!  I've seen wet sh!t with more of a backbone than Lindsey Graham.  What pathetic piece of garbage.  I really need to stop looking at this thread before I give myself a stroke :(

Spineless coward. Graham genuinely surprises me. Oh well, I'll toss him on the list with McCain and that idiot Marco Rubio.

Tillerson as SoS is bad for the country, period.  Bolton can't even make it out of committee and we're not gonna have a draft again.

I think a lot of people were hoping for Corker or Romney, but we all know that wasn't going to happen.

The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS2a44F5TgM)

Looks like all of Trump's picks are gonna go in. The GOP has no backbone & people like Graham don't have much of a base. The GOP voters will swing anywhere & everywhere from neocons to Russia loving based on what their liberal hating white rage leader tells them.

Neocon & Russia hate is dead for the time beginning till a new leader comes !

Called it.

Hooray for neocon cowardice. :)

Rubio falls in line on Tillerson. (https://twitter.com/gabriellahope_/status/823552471993872384)

I believe Linda McMahon is up for confirmation at the beginning of this week (Tuesday?).  I totally don't expect her to be blocked since she's one of the less controversial Trump appointments but it'll be interesting to see whether they bring up anything about her past with the WWE.  Any Democrat worth a damn should bring up the whole independent contractor thing (basically; the vast, vast majority of US-based professional wrestlers aren't technically employers but independent contractors which means  - for those on the indies who work non-exclusive deals this isn't a huge problem and is probably appropriate within the law since they do have  but those who work for the WWE (and on exclusive contracts for other promotions as well; I'm pretty sure at this point that's possibly like a couple of guys in both TNA and Ring of Honor; even TNA's big names now work the indies between TV tapings) its an incredibly dubious categorisation that really should have been struck down years ago: two of the basic criteria that differentiate between an "employee" and an "independent contractor" is whether someone can refuse a booking or take bookings for other promotions which WWE talent aren't allowed to do according to their contracts.  There's a reason that they do this: it basically means that they don't need to do some of the stuff that they'd have to if their wrestlers were considered employees (the big one is providing heath insurance; although they do cover costs for in-ring injuries at the moment but that's something that they could legally drop at any time - I also think that they'd have to cover travel costs directly as well which I don't believe that they do for stops under a certain length) and that saves them money even though its really, really skeevy.  Lots of people who've retired or otherwise moved on from pro wrestling generally all agree that its a big problem but the only legal challenge so far failed on procedural grounds so there's been no progress and I can't see any being made under Trump.  I'm pretty sure that other sports do it as well though, but that doesn't make it any better!

Although part of me expects that we'll get the usual questions that always come up and that have been dealt with before (Steroids, mentioning some of the most distasteful angles from the late 90s, that sort of thing) rather than anything substantive that could reveal anything about Linda McMahon.

Lol Rubio

Same. I had some respect left for McCain and Graham.

i guess tillerson is an hell of a guy regarding convincing and bashed the shoot out of putin.

Did anyone doubt this would happen?

Anyone who still thinks McCain is bipartisan or has a spine is utterly retarded at this point.

That' was your first mistake, friend.  Rid yourself of that respect and you'll have a happier life.

Damn, that new White House press secretary (Sean Scheisser or something) is an unlikeable guy ...

What a bunch of spineless chums. I guess DeVos is a lock as well. Well, I guess if you're going to f*** America over, might as well go all the way and f*** it over beyond repair.

You are getting nasty :)

Good name for the guy, though. An alternative name.

Any liberal who thought McCain, Rubio, ect. was going to be on their side should promptly find the nearest magazine, roll it up into a tube, and beat themselves in the head while repeating "I will not trust Republicans" over and over again until it sticks.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting right now in order to vote on Tillerson nomination.  Any predictions on whether Tillerson gets any Democratic votes?

I think he might ultimately be a purely party-line vote (give or take Manchin and Collins).

If I heard the vote so far correctly, it was a party line vote, though some of those were votes by proxy for Senators not present, and they have a couple hours to come in in person and change it if they want.

Anyway, now the Senators are explaining their votes.

These guys live to talk before a camera.

Trump was right about Lil Marco.  He is a spineless coward.  There hasn't been a betrayal like this since 1860.  I will never support him again.  Too bad we can't recall Senators, he'd be on his butt cruising Wainwright park in no time.

Mike Pompeo has been confirmed.  Right now, it's 65-27 (the only GOP no was Paul).

SHOCKING!

Spineless neocons. Not surprised one bit.

I love seeing hacks bow the knee, no matter how bad the actual picks are.

Paul is the only Republican to vote against Trump's terrible CIA pick. 14 freedom hating Democrats, King, and every other Republican vote in favor.

Paul consistently impresses me even though I disagree with some of politics. I would vote for him over a generic D.

I disagree with Rand Paul on 99% of issues but at least he commits to his beliefs, and I can be certain that his ideas are HIS ideas.

Tom Price confirmation hearings part 2 is going on right now.

rand paul got some balls.....rubio knows what he is doing.

Rand Paul is a true libertarian-GOP member. Rubio is a opportunist.

Will every Republicans be giving blowjobs to Tom Price today?

lets dispel with this notion that marco rubio doesn't know what hes doing he knows exactly what he's doing

lets dispel with this notion that marco rubio doesn't know what hes doing he knows exactly what he's doing

lets dispel with this notion that marco rubio doesn't know what hes doing he knows exactly what he's doing

lets dispel with this notion that marco rubio doesn't know what hes doing he knows exactly what he's doing

Ross has made it out of committee for Commerce Secretary.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senate-committee-approves-commerce-nominee/ar-AAmb8Vk?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

Carson makes it out of committee as well.  Ugh.

Haley sails through, as does Chao.

Nikki Haley has been confirmed as the Ambassador to the UN.  Currently, she has unanimous support, at 51-0.

EDIT: Udall has cast the first no vote.  Her confirmation vote is currently 76-1.

EDIT 2: Haley passes by a vote of 96-4.  Udall, Coons, Sanders, and Heinrich were the four no votes.

lul wut Coons.

Is Pompeo so bad? I listened to his hearing, and my impression of him wasn't negative at all...he seemed to me at least a loyal and trustworthy person( to your Nation, obviously, not to Trump)...maybe I don't know him fully?

Unanimously even. He made it clear he was willing to work with the members of the committee on whatever issues were important to them, and had studied up on things before the hearing enough that anyone hoping he'd be embarrassed as an ignoramous was going to be disappointed.

The issue was mainly things he had said in the past about torture and surveillance.  Also some concern with the written answers he gave.

Some concerns about previous remarks and his general fundie-ness. Some lefties think he wants a holy war with Islam, which I have seen no evidence of. Trump could have picked way worse and the CIA rank and file from what I heard are onboard with him

Out of curiosity, Paul's vote against confirmation for Pompeo was the first time a Senator voted against confirmation for a Cabinet (or "Cabinet level") pick from his own party since....when?  Did any Dems vote against any Obama Cabinet choices?  Any Republicans vote against any Bush Cabinet choices?

Btw, Paul wrote an op/ed explaining his vote against Pompeo:

http://rare.us/story/rand-paul-why-i-voted-against-the-new-cia-director/

Congratulations soon-to-be Secretary Ben Carson! :)

that would be since Obama nominated Brennan for that same position.  Leahy and Merkley voted nay.

Others for Obama include Tim Geithner's confirmation: Byrd, Feingold and Harkin voted nay
11 Democrats voted against Bernanke for the Fed, Ben Nelson voted against Kagan for SC, and Byrd voted against Kind for Trade Rep.

(Sanders also voted Nay on all of these except Kagan, and against Lew and Pritzker)

https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/six_column_table/Obama_cabinet.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmations_of_Barack_Obama's_Cabinet

Senator Cantwell has announced that she will vote NO on DeVos:

https://twitter.com/SenatorCantwell/status/824779768218411008

Sanders, Byrd, and Harkin voted against Geithner.

Heitkamp is a NO on DeVos btw.

Schumer is a NO on DeVos, Mulvaney, Tillerson, Sessions, Price, Mnuchin, Pruitt, and Puzder.

Well they're his father's ideas, not his, but he does have his heart in the right place, and isn't corrupt like a lot of other politicians.

We all get our ideas from someone else.

Agree with him except for Tillerson. Not the best choice (Huntsman or Corker would be better from the GOP side), but far superior to guys like Bolton. I'd vote aye on Rex.

I do agree that Huntsman would be better than Tillerson, but I'd take him over Corker.

Kinda like saying you'd rather get shot instead of getting burned alive. Why not force the President to be accountable and nominate someone who isn't terrible?

Senate currently debating Tillerson, and is supposed to vote on a motion to proceed to the vote within minutes, though I'm unclear if there would still then be a separate vote for the nomination itself later in the week.

Chao is supposed to be voted on tomorrow, and I guess a slew of others (including, I think, Sessions, Price, DeVos, and Perry) are to be voted on in committee tomorrow, but not yet on the Senate floor.

A separate vote on Tillerson for confirmation by the Senate appears likely to take place later in the week.

The motion to proceed to a vote on Tillerson's nomination is currently ahead 51-43, and that's good enough for it to pass.  A few more votes to count before it's over, but it's cleared the 50 vote threshold it needs already.

It sounded like Heitkamp, Warner, and Angus King all voted in favor, along with all the Republicans, but don't quote me on that because I might have misheard one or more of those.  I assume Manchin has/will vote in favor as well, though I didn't hear his vote.  Maybe he's one of the people yet to vote.

UPDATE: Manchin voted in favor.

Morden, the names you listed are correct.

Manchin and Heitkamp clearly looking for a leg up in their 2018 re-election bids here.

https://twitter.com/SarahMMimms/status/826450051434176515

Committee votes are planned for today for Sessions, Perry, Zinke, Price, Mnuchin, and DeVos, as well as a full Senate floor vote for Chao (who may get unanimous support).

Anyone who thinks that delaying any Trump nominee will harm Democrats in 2018 hasn't been paying attention.

Merrick Garland

uhm...

"Putting my personal biases aside, Republicans look really bad when they keep on delaying Obama's SCOTUS nominee. This is going to stick with them during the general election and Clinton voters won't forget it."

Wow. Are you really that blind?

Sorry I don't mean to be rude, but we just saw it LAST YEAR and the party doing it won.

They are doing this for the midterms.

Think.

remember: VOTERS LOVE OBSTRUCTIONISM

this ship has sailed.

DeVoss has made it out of committee.

Cortez-Masto says she will vote for Perry.

Oh lord

"DeVos questionnaire appears to include passages from uncited sources"


https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/devos-questionnaire-appears-to-include-passages-from-uncited-sources/2017/01/31/50577dec-e7be-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html?utm_term=.e7037693764f

ARE YOU F**KING WITH ME?!

GOP is going to suffer forever for betraying murkowski.

Pence would be needed to break the tie.

Dems are boycotting Price and Mnuchin, Denying a quorum. lol
Hatch is apoplectic.

Final vote on Elaine Chao 93-6.

turtle power...:D

Tom Cotton is proposing a good ol fashioned quorum call! Great news!

Who were the 6 voting no?

Gillibrand, Merkley, Sanders, Schumer, Warren and Booker. McConnell voted Present.

Manchin will approve, he said he will vote for all nominees. No big deal.

Im pretty sure all dems are united against DeVos, including Manchin.

I think Price too.

If even Al Franken is voting Aye... But yeah, Boooker is veeeeeeeeery moderate and a veeeeeeery strong candidate.  

Ok, we'll see. But I wouldn't be mad if Pence could get his big moment, love the tie breaking vote :-D

@manchin:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/18/politics/joe-manchin-tom-price-betsy-devos/index.html

Sanders didn't vote aye.  He was one of the 6 no votes, as shown above.

I do wonder if Booker and Gillibrand (and maybe even Warren) still would have voted no on Chao if they weren't running for president.

This is not looking good. Anyone know of any good walls I can punch if Brainless DePlagiarist gets confirmed?

Well... Now we're even more unsure about Manchin than before lol.

You're right, excuse me. Changed it. I should stop being in 10 threads at the same time, chatting on twitter and eating meanwhile. Sorry.

You're incapable of putting your personal biases aside.

And Puzder.

LOL

No one is going to care. Seriously. I think supporters of both sides really have a tendency to put too much weight on actions like this towards the next elections. In all likelihood these people are going to get confirmed eventually and 2 years from now no one is going to care about some procedural issues that ultimately had little effect. I'm not even convinced anyone would care if one of these nominees got blocked entirely and was replaced by someone else.

In fact, I would bet voters are going to be more concerned about any number of new things Trump does over that time period. You should probably be more worried about Trump alienating a portion of his core supporters rather than banking on mundane, yawn-worthy issues like this to rile them up and make them forget everything else.

Murkowski will be there for 30 years and it is all thanks to Joe Miller bungling a winnable race.


Republicans did not "betray Murkowski". Alaska Republican primary voters got sick of being run by crooked nepotists whose only reason for being in office was who her daddy was and how much money she gets/got from big oil and other business interests.

Only once both Sarah Palin and Joe Miller proved to be out control and extreme, did people like Murkowski manage to surge back and regain control. A direct result of that was the Republicans loss of the Governorship to Walker. Alaska wants independent reformers, not insider hacks who happen to be moderate.

Murkowski has managed to boost her personal popularity since losing her primary. So people forget how she got there. But never forget, the reason she lost was not "Republicans betraying her" (which is almost as bad as Don Young saying "Don't criticize my pork, it is my money" when it comes to a sense of entitlement for AK GOP establishment types), but voters objecting yet again to having a Senator appointed by her father who was ridden out of the Governorship on a rail for corruption subsequently with a 15% approval rating and even placed third in a GOP primary behind Sarah Palin and another candidate. She also to that point had done little to establish herself and didn't build much of a record, and her approvals were low. She almost lost the general election in 2004 despite Bush winning 64% at the same time.

Murkowski the moderate hero, boldly fighting extremists is a 2010's PR invention that has done well to remake her image, but the prior decade she was the poster child of a corrupt old order that was being dismantled by voters tired of a culture of corruption.

https://twitter.com/KT_thomps/status/826805797304823808

Mnuchin and Price approved in the Committee after rule Change without Dems present. Hardball. Was about time.

"Finance Committee members have wrapped up after dropping a “mini-nuke”. At the hearing for DeVos yesterday, Democratic members objected to Senator Hatch’s vote by proxy. Between the no-show yesterday and that, Hatch apparently had it."

LOL

Vote on Sessions at 11:15


Vote approaching on Pruitt. Looks like the Democrats walked out there too.


I guess the long knives are out and they are just going ram these through committee now.

No one by the full Senate.  Only Sessions in committee today.  Price and Mnuchin already make it out of committee.

Strike that........Tillerson's full Senate vote is scheduled for later today.

Sessions approved 11-9 in committee.

Once they have passed committee, what is to stop McConnell from ramming them through the full Senate immediately? There is no filibuster on cabinet appointees anymore.

The committees have certain procedures that delay the process including one week notice for votes, hence why I said once they pass committee.

Beyond that I am not aware of any because if an objection is raised, the cloture vote is a simple majority for such nominees.

McConnell will only fight when there needs to be a fight.  They passed through the committees and he'll let them vote in the full Senate using the natural process they go through

Dems can make it impossible for a vote to be called through traditional talking filibusters, obviously. You don't even necessarily need to talk through the night. Senators greatest weakness is their desire to sleep and have a weekend, so you really only need 10 hours of material at the most.

Annnnnnd Sessions makes it out of committee.

The U.S. Attorney for Maryland to be nominated as Deputy Attorney General:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-to-nominate-rod-rosenstein-deputy-attorney-general/ar-AAmtzv2?li=AA5a8k&ocid=spartandhp

Politico: Collins is leaning no on DeVos

I have very shrewd personal reasons for hoping Sessions goes through, but DeVos going down wouldn't break my heart any.

Let's see if she has a spine

Manchin is a no on DeVos

Any word on Murkowski?

She's not up for re-election until 2020 anyway, and I don't think voting no on someone grossly incompetent to head the Department of Education is going to make or break a re-election bid, should she seek one.

Collins is a no.  https://twitter.com/ByronTau/status/826866181638348800

RINO

Sounds like a career DOJ guy, not a GOP hack. Hopefully a non-terrible choice

Thank you, Senator Collins!

Murkowski is NO. So Pence's first tiebreaker it is. https://twitter.com/Phil_Mattingly/status/826870465125765127

Depends on if they confirm Sessions first or not.

They've already said yes on Sessions, as has Manchin.

What I meant is if Sessions is confirmed by the Senate before DeVos there will only be 99 Senators, 50 Nay's 49 Ayes.

Which is why they're doing Sessions later.

McConnell isn't stupid enough to let that happen.

If DeVos ends up being 50-50, with Pence as the tie-breaking vote, surely Republicans know the backlash they're going to face for that...

lol you think they care.

Fun fact: Biden never cast a tiebreaker vote, and it looks like Pence will get one right away.

Anyone who is going to be extremely upset over devos being confirmed as education Secretary is already a hardcore democrat, odds are we hear very little about her if she gets confirmed

Yeah, DeVoss should be one of the Democrats lesser worries.

Devos is just so utterly incompetent and so clearly motivated by donations. She doesn't have the credentials for the job.

Every cabinet has patronage appointments unfortunately but this is a position that has very little power in a department that is controlled mostly by mid-level bureaucrats.

Yeah, but does it have to be this obvious? Make her ambassador to some county and call it even.

In hindsight devos was ridiculously controversial for an education Secretary(she'll still likely get confirmed with pence as a tiebreaker) there are charter school advocates with much less baggage

In the grand scheme of things, sure, in the sense that a badly mismanaged Education Department will do less damage to the country than, say, a bad DOJ or State Department. But DeVos is at best, one of the most manifestly unqualified of Trump's nominees and at worst hostile to the purpose of the Education Department.

Uh I just saw an advertisement to confirm Jeff Sessions on CNN. Anyone else? That's bizarre.

Of course they think they can afford to ignore it. We'll see how well that works out for them.

Cheers to you Collins and Murkowski!

Just like merrick garland was going to hurt republicans last year?

Rex Tillerson crossed 50 votes to become the next Secretary of State.

Gross.

Edit: Final vote is 56-43.

Ben Sasse, Jeff Flake etc can vote against Devos can't they? Surely someone else can vote!

Any nominee voted down in a Republican majority Senate will be a massive embarrassment for the Republican party!

Imagine the Trump tweets - He is gonna burn the GOP senators!

Moskowitz and Rhee were options A and B, but both said no.

I think Ben Sasse burned his bridges a long time ago. What else does he have to lose?

Why in the hell did Warner and King vote for Tillerson?

Because they're spineless dweebs who don't want to ruffle the Trumpenfuhrer's feathers.

Maybe, or maybe only Democrats will care, just like only Republicans cared about Hillary's emails.

Sasse I'm sure would line up with DeVos views though. He's no moderate

King is voting Yes on most GOP nominees. But Warner from VA is possibly the most damaging & the most conservative of all Dem Senators - He needs to face a primary!

Yeah, Warner's got to go.  Progressives are sick of being cucked.

I guess Warner was telling the truth about not wanting to run for president in the future...

Virginia would probably be one of the hardest states in the country to run a insurgency primary against a 2 term Senator and former Governor.

Yeah this is going to be tricky to find another vote. It will probably have to be a surprising one that hasn't gotten a lot of DeVos money in the past.

I'm guessing that if she isn't confirmed, Trump will go nuclear and nominate Bill Evers.

He can nominate anyone he wants - He will have egg on his face & will be the president with having a nominee voted down in many decades while having a majority in the Senate.

Oh boy, I am waiting for the tweets! Schumer should play it in his face - We'll get to see a 5 year boy throwing tantrums & name calling like you have never seen before!

Manchin and Heitkamp votes are expected, but honestly, screw Warner.

Maybe Dean Heller could vote against DeVos?

Yea, he is up for election in 2020. or McCain!

(Dean Heller is up in 2018)

But yeah, it would be really nice if we could get that one extra vote. McCain and Graham are also possibilities. So close...

I feel like Graham would do it just to spite Trump.

Heller supports DeVos (https://twitter.com/DavidMDrucker/status/826906848120938496)

Extremists, promoting violence in their signatures, are calling somebody "unqualified" and "out of mainstream". Very funny. Let's get help, guys!

DeVos will get confirmed. I'll love the meltdown after Pence is breaking the tie.

I'm not angry towards Collins, but Murkowski should be out... Joe Miller...

Now it seems to be hoping for a wildcard like Fischer.

I really thought they'd pull Devos after this happened; she's the fatal combination of an incompetent ideologue

Yea 2018, typo. Graham supports, Sasse suports, Heller supports.

McCain is the only home - Some people are targeting Toomey & Portman (PA & OH)

Would be more damaging for GOP Senators regarding their re-election chances to vote against Trump then to support his nominees.

These liberals and far-left activists opposing DeVos will never vote for a GOP Senators regardless of his vote on her confirmation. Way easier to lose support from the GOP base than gaining support from Dems.

Doesn't explain why someone like Murkowski is voting nay- she said it's because of phone calls/letters. There's hardly a devout far left base in Alaska is there...

Take with a grain of salt, but I've seen a few tweets saying Toomey is on the fence about Devos. Any word if he's officially come out as a yes?

I doubt that it came from Alaska exclusivly. In my eyes, these are just weasel words.

What amuses me is that two Republican women are trying to bring down a female nominee (after we heard that Trump nominated not enough women).

Btw, I'm watching the Senate Session. It's boring... Now Pocahontas is yelling lol.

I don't want to interrupt your shameless hackery but staffers tend to ask where callers are from/monitor calls so they know if it's an in state person or not.

Are people really that surprised about Warner? He's always struck me as one of the more conservative Democrats in the Senate, and definitely to the right of Kaine.

LOL, I'm not a computer expert, but I know that it's possible to change the location ;-) Whatever.

I imagine the 'gop base' don't really give a crap about DeVos either way.

Heller is supporting DeVos.

http://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=pressreleases&id=EF101523-5C29-499D-A821-2ACA0F4162E5

Surprised he of all people would not be an easy yes

I bet a few Democrats will vote for her.

Considering how ravaged Kansas schools have been by Brownback, education woes might be a more salient concern of his.

Moran has always been pretty indecisive, and frequently waits until the last minute to commit to anything.  E.g., last year he was wobbly on whether the Senate should hold hearings for Merrick Garland.  And he was pretty late in endorsing Trump for president (then waffled on it some more, even after he endorsed him).

Until I have good reason to believe otherwise, I'm going to guess that any Republicans (other than Collins and Murkowski) who claim to be "on the fence" about DePlagiarist are, in the end, going to be good little minions and vote for her. They're probably just saying that they're undecided to make it look like they care about such trivial things as knowledge, experience, and qualifications.

If DeVos gets voted down, that would be the first good news since the departure from the TPP.

Her office probably got a lot of calls from concerned voters.

Deb Fischer confirmed she will vote for DeVos. Looks like Pence is going to break the tie.

Is the vote scheduled yet?

Cloture vote Friday (only needs 51 votes), Final vote Monday

Sessions just advanced in the senate, 53-45.  Dems were unified against him, with the exception of Manchin the DINO.

Wait does that mean that Sessions was confirmed?  If so, can he vote for DeVos?

No, they're waiting to officially confirm him until after the DeVos vote.

is there any precedent for someone like mcconnell turning a blind eye to a true moderate?

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/317629-trump-taps-first-woman-to-cia-second-in-command

Price and Mnuchin advance 51-48

Sad.

Nice, Democratic unity!

Who abstained?

Apparently, Thom Tillis is undecided on DeVos.

Edit: Or not...

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article130414169.html

  I'm disappointed that Mccain and Graham voted for Tillerson. I would have felt better about the pick if they had opposed him for not being neo-conservative/interventionist enough. I do believe they had reservations about him which is a good sign.

I saw on Facebook that Bob Corker is supporting DeVos as well.  When is this vote scheduled to happen?

What's the word on Senator Moran? Still undecided on DeVos?

Tuesday.

Which other Republican Senators are most likely to vote against DeVos at this point?

Nobody.

I doubt anyone wants to be the third republican vote against devos and trigger a 3am tweetstorm from trump

Wonder if Puzder goes next

I saw something about Tom Thillis being undecided on DeVos, not sure if that's still the case.

Really need DeVos to be defeated, probably the most incompetent person Trump picked, and that's saying something.

Nevermind, just found more up to date info that Tillis is supporting her.

If Devos gets confirmed(likely but with Pence as a tiebreaker) then Price becomes the next liberal boogeyman that democrats will try to have defeated. Unlike Devos, I doubt Price will have any republican defections

So I guess the order for confirmation votes on the Senate floor this week (starting tomorrow) is DeVos, Sessions, Price, Mnuchin:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/senate-pushes-to-confirm-devos-sessions-price-mnuchin-next-week/article/2613941

I think the Veterans committee will also vote on Shulkin tomorrow.

Republican Congressman from WI-2:

Rep. Mark Pocan ‏@repmarkpocan  2h2 hours ago
Hearing rumors in DC that Scott Walker wants Labor Secretary if Andy Puzder's nomination falls through.

Rep. Mark Pocan ‏@repmarkpocan  2h2 hours ago
Started after Walker discussed labor issues w/ @VP Pence, Trump-style twitter war with Sen. Baldwin & speculation of bad WI budget this week

The entire day is debate over DeVos. Her final vote is noon tomorrow.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/02/06/senate-democrats-mount-one-last-push-against-betsy-devos/?utm_term=.192025b74d4c


Also:

http://www.koco.com/article/senate-round-the-clock-trump-cabinet-devos-sessions-democrats-confirmation/8680353

Assuming that DeVos is (ugh) confirmed, Democrats have to draw attention to what she actually does as SoE, so that their opposition to her doesn't just become a moot point/waste of time the day after she's confirmed.

It would be huge if Democrats and three Republicans could block DeVos. And it would be fun to watch how President Pussygrabber reacts. Likely total Twitter meltdown.

I just heard a rumor that Toomey is voting against DeVos.  If this is true and there aren't any Dem deflections, she's finished.

Nevermind.  A friend of mine just misread a tweet, apparently.

Hope not

If there was a third Republican to block DeVos, Murkowski and Collins wouldn't be voting against her in the first place.

Very good. In this context, being cynical is simply being accurate, in general.

So we go from a guy that is against the minimum wage to a guy who has declared unions public enemy no. 1?  Who's next on Trump's list?  krazen?

Puzder admits to employing an undocumented worker.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/06/politics/andrew-puzder-labor-department-trump-undocumented-worker/index.html



Also, Rand Paul says he will oppose Elliott Abrams for Dep. Secretary of State.

Only one? Hard to believe. But it would fit well with America’s first orange president, who employed undocumented Polish workers at Trump Tower and even married one from Slovenia.

Puzder should withdraw, but if Walker is the replacement, it won’t be better.

DeVos vote happening now.

RAND PAUL VOTES NO

HOLY F**KING SH*T

AHHHHHFGBHJFDSDHVFVC

At least that's what I think I heard.  My reception is terrible here.

Toomey voted yes.

Murkowski and Collins vote no officially. I haven't heard Paul vote yet.

Paul just voted Aye

Nope, just heard "Mr. Paul, aye." So much for that. :(

Asshole...

Paul is an aye

False alarms everyone

McCain and Graham already voted aye. Who's left to defect?

Has Heller voted yet?

Manchin votes no

He voted yes.  He and Flake can remember that for 2018.

Nos at 50

The last few are taking their sweet time

Well, looks like we'll be chucking a grenade at public education and falling even further behind. Thanks, Congressional Republican schmucks! Thanks, Trump voters!

Ayes at 50.

Fcking cowards.

Bye Bye Flake, I'll gladly vote you out of office now.

Public education could use a grenade chucked their way, but I'm not sure this is the way to go.

Fcking shtty country this is.

I expect Heller and Flake to get a lot of backlash for their votes.

These Senators that voted aye have disgraced their office.

It was a mistake for me to ever think these idiots ever had anything close to a backbone. I won't forget this.

My previous endorsements of Senators Heller and Flake are revoked.

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well, come on folks, did you really expect Senate Republicans circa 2017 to have a spine?

Oh yeah, and Garder's fcking gone in 2020.

No, I expected this, but the horror of the past couple of months just got personal for me.

Bold Prediction - zero Republicans cross over to vote against Puzder, Puzder makes it through 52-48.

Better question, will any Republican vote against any of the remaining nominees?

It really doesn't matter if there are crossovers now.  Today's vote shows that fifty Republicans are cowards who will happily vote in lockstep with their Fuhrer regardless of how unwise it is, and that's all that's needed.

Doubt it. Before the confirmations started I predicted they'd all get through, and I see no reason for that to change now.

McConnell might let one or two go every confirmation just for the lolz. Credit where credit is due, the guy has a firm control of his god damn caucus.

Collins flat out said that she would have voted for DeVos if necessary.

Better question yet, will any of the 50 cowards ever oppose Trump in any meaningful way? (i.e. not just talk it abstractly, a la "maaaaaaaaybe I'll have to vote against Tillerson :P")

Possibly not for the remaining Cabinet level appointments.  Paul might vote against some of the deputies in foreign policy areas, like State and Defense.  He's already urging Trump not to pick Elliott Abrams for the #2 job at State.

Trump wins again!

rofl lmao "moderate" susan collins.

NV is D+1 in 20 months. Republicans officially sold out the children of this country.

Good, glad she was confirmed. Democrats engaged in so much damn character assassination on this confirmation hearing. not only on DeVos but on all education advocates who supported charter schools or private vouchers.

She's patently an idiot. If anything, vouchers and charter schools will be discredited when she's done.

Surely having such an elitist simpleton as your figurehead kind of undermines the cause of "education reformers", no?

Character assassination? It was clear that she doesn't know squat about the public education system, and she was still confirmed. I bet a good chunk of posters in this forum are more qualified than she is. I can only shudder at the thought of the damage her incompetence will inflict on an already wanting education system. Party line hacks are horrible.

Eyes on states like Kansas moving forward.

I am not sure it’s so obvious that we can extrapolate what’s happening now forward to what happens when we go from voting on personnel to voting on policy.

Sure, the GOP caucus is voting in near lockstep to confirm the personnel that Trump wants around him.  But that’s what normally happens.  When you get into actual policy debates, that’s where presidents often have real defections from their own party.

The health insurance issue is one where this is already playing out.  Trump would apparently like Congress to do *something* on this issue, but it’s far from obvious that anything other than minor tinkering can pass.  Now, I don’t think it’s clear that Trump cares that much about the issue, so maybe it doesn’t count.  But does Trump really care that much about *any* policy issue?  I’m not convinced.  It’s Paul Ryan who is more interested in passing the Republican agenda than Trump.  And I’m guessing there will in fact be issues where Ryan’s agenda is constrained by divisions within the GOP caucus.  Health care is one, but there will be others.

Very shameful that DeVos was confirmed.

See, this is why the country needs to split.  Let unqualified morons like DeVos control education in Alabama and Kentucky and Tennessee or whatever.  Don't force the states that didn't vote for this to have education rot in their states.

This one makes me want to vomit.

SIKE. Spineless fycking coward.

Goddamned spineless cowards, all of them. Too afraid to get targeted on Twitter by the petulant man-baby that runs the free world. Pathetic. I hope all the kids that get their public schools shut down are forced to live with the Senators that voted to confirm Devos, and that those Senators have to pay for their private schooling. This is infuriating.

Manu Raju ‏@mkraju  10m10 minutes ago
Sen. Collins, Murkowski, Scott and Isakson all withholding judgment on Puzder's nomination after he revealed he hired undocumented immigrant


I'm guessing this will either end up similar to Tillerson (people pretend they are concerned and then vote Aye anyway), or Puzder may pull out.

He'll sail through anyway. F**king pieces of sh*t.

She should not have been confirmed for the same reason the Mayo Clinic shouldn't hire me to be a heart surgeon.

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Atlas:

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Pot meet kettle.

She's patently unqualified for the job and should have been outright rejected by the Senate. To put things into perspective, the previous Education Secretary served as New York's Commissioner of Education and then United States Deputy Secretary of Education before eventually being appointed to be the 10th United States Secretary of Education.

What are Betsy DeVos' qualifications for the job? She's a billionaire with opinions on education policy, of which she only has a surface understanding of.

DeVos deserves the attacks. She is wholly unqualified for this position, as she clearly demonstrated in her hearings, and isn't merely for "school choice" or "vouchers", but doesn't even think education should be public, thinks teachers should make less (since we're clearly the richest people in society), and is 100% bought and paid for. Wanna know why so many of these Republicans voted for her? Look up how much she donated to their campaigns. She is an embarrassment.

I'd be perfectly fine with having a serious discussion with people about charter schools, and whether or not they should get public funding. I have very strong opinions on this, but if people have more to say than just "choice is good", I'm happy to debate them and talk about this. Unfortunately, a lot of people just threw their support behind her because of the idea of her being for "school choice", and didn't really have much to say about her other positions or qualifications. Is that really a good justification? What if I supported Mark Zuckerberg for Secretary of State, because he seemed "dovish", and yet he could hardly give a coherent answer in his confirmation hearing, and showed a complete lack of understanding of foreign affairs and governments? Surely people would call me out on this, and rightly so.

While I despise DeVos for so many reasons, there may be a silver lining to her and the other nominees: Trump is staffing his administration with a bunch of people who really aren't qualified at all, and in some cases have unpopular policy plans, and the ensuing incompetence will make it harder for them to pass his agenda. Look at the mess he's already made. Imagine what could have been had Trump been very professional about this and filled his administration with experienced & effective officials?

We were probably getting a pro-voucher / anti-public school nominee anyway, so maybe at least with DeVos we can more effectively impede their agenda.

Thank god she was confirmed!
I was afraid my children would be attacked by bears in school.

She wasn't my choice, I supported David Barton or Michelle Rhee, but I would've voted for her. As for Puzder, I'm opposed to him.

If the democrats vote to abolish the department of education they can get rid of devos.....

Great midterm news.

Would it be a bit much for Democrats to troll about unregulated charters meaning RADICAL ISLAMISTS!!! would be able to receive funding for their schools?

Nevada is much more Republican in midterm years (unless Harry Reid's running). I wouldn't count Heller out any time soon.

There is talk of scott walker angling for it if he pulls out.

That's not a very funny joke.

Just let it burn at this point. If DeVos can get the position, anyone can. We're screwed as a country for 2 years, at least, and damage control effectiveness is somewhere in between extremely limited to none.

Republicans pretty much nailed their coffin for all I care. I'll see if the D party goes the right direction. If it does, I'll become D.

Not a joke but it seems hes denying the rumors. http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/scott-walker-nixes-speculation-he-s-in-mix-for-donald/article_d3824fe2-a53c-5365-a2d3-fca4e9d9b589.html

I hope they allow the full regional control of education so that these Trumpist states can reap what they sow.

Do you really think that people who voted for Donald Trump give a damn about the state of education in this country?

Not a good nominee but not the end of the world.  We'll survive and so will the kids

School choice is one of the few areas where I'm moderate. I went to one of the supposedly best public high schools and it wasn't all that good. The curriculum was disjointed, there was no structured social life, there was no effort to foster student-teacher relationships, the material wasn't sufficiently challenging, afterschool programs weren't adequately advertised, and-- well, in general it left a lot lacking, especially for a 'top' school. I'd like to see what private industry could do in the sector. Education is so important because it has a big impact on people's lives. It's funny how the areas I'm most moderate about, other liberals tend to be most passionate about, and vice versa.

I'm relatively moderate about this for a maroon avatar too--my position is that excellent, well-funded public education has to be the ideal but I understand why parents might want school choice in some actually-existing situations--but that doesn't make DeVos specifically any less horrible.

For me at least, opposing DeVos isn't so much about her support for vouchers, it's more about the fact that she never attended or taught at a public school , nor did her children, yet wants to be in a job focused mostly on the public school system. She also has no comprehension of Proficiency vs. Growth or basic federal disability laws. Basically, she has no experience relevant to the job, and is therefore objectively not qualified to do it. It's not a partisan thing at all. It's about keeping out someone who simply isn't ready for the job.

I'm not surprised.

I'm pretty sure Kellyanne Conjob was his first choice, but Priebus and Ryan convinced him otherwise.

This says that they are looking for a new Communications Director, not a new Press Secretary.

Sean Spicer is the acting Communications Director and Press Secretary.

I don't understand a thing, maybe it's just because I'am a fool...Collins and Murkoswski are both in the Committee competent about Education...this Committee is 12-11 Republican...so, not even both, but just the vote of one of them would have blocked DeVos in the preliminary fase, without the need of a full floor Senate vote...if they weren't willing to vote for her, why did they vote for advancing her nomination in Committee?

It looks pretty clear now that McConnell let these two vote no to placate their constituents who were going hard at them on DeVos. But he wasn't going to let them actually block the process. So just like the 50 other R senators had no choice but to vote "Yay", Collins and Murkoswki had no choice but to vote "Yay" on the Committee. We, critics of DeVos, should really not hold them up as Moderate Heroes...

Those who pay close attention know how much of a "moderate" Collins really is. Ordinary voters, though, just hear about how she doesn't always vote with the Republicans, so she gets to keep up her image as a moderate.

When was the last time Pussygrabber blamed himself for ANYTHING?

The people of Maine should decide whether she's moderate enough for them, not Atlas Forum. In 2008, a huge Dem wave, she beat back a serious challenge by 20 points. It's pretty clear that the people of Maine feel she is moderate enough for them, and it is their judgment that counts. Regarding DeVos, Collins was clear about her views: She opposed the nomination, but did not feel the matter was serious enough to prevent the full Senate from having their say on it.

In other news, resident socialist Elizabeth Warren has been ordered to remain silent because she read a letter from Coretta Scott King that insulted Sen. Sessions.

She's not a socialist and you've learned nothing.

I didn't watch the violation and so cannot fairly say she is innocent. And she is a socialist.

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DWS forced Warren to not actually endorse Sanders, but everyone knows Warren would have endorsed Sanders had she been allowed to, which makes her a socialist, like it or not.

Sanders calls himself a Socialist. Why would he call himself a Socialist if he wasn't an actual socialist? It's not as if being a socialist is "cool" in this country. Even extreme liberals like Nancy Pelosi are capitalists.

I didn't think it was possible to make a post that was more stupid than the one you replied to, but you did it. Congrats.


DEMOCRATIC socialist.

All that part means is that Sanders doesn't support appointing a dictator. Socialism is not a system that requires a dictator to make it work.

Even if it is inevitable, I will still fight against it, as I believe it is an unamerican ideology. Pelosi said it best: "We're capitalists and that's just the way it is."

is the word "social democrats" so unheard of in the US? the rest of the democratic party are located between european christian democrats and green parties.

The Heritage Foundation is conservative, not libertarian.  And, a lot of this is Obama's fault.  The Index of Economic Freedom is also a pretty complicated calculation.

It seems to be. You're either branded a Wall Street crony or literally Stalin.

Fake president Pussygrabber's twitter is now ranting about the record long time it's taken his Cabinet to be  confirmed.

Given his track record, I'm assuming he's lying, still.