Confirmation hearing: Simfan for Attorney General (Failed)

[windjammer]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Senators, you have 72 hours to ask questions to Simfan.
Simfan, you have 72 hours to defend yourself.

[windjammer]

A final vote is now open. Please senators, vote AYE, NAY or ABSTAIN.

[windjammer]

Simfan, what are your goals for this position?

Is it allowed for Simfan to respond to this even though the vote has already started?  If so I will wait for his response before voting.

I don't know if this is allowed or not. But at least, this  isn't forbidden!

[windjammer]

AYE

Why would you vote to confirm a nominee who didn't even show up?

Because Goldwater, like fellow Federalist DC Al Fine, is not interested in doing his job.

He's made only two posts on the FG board since the beginning of April (other than votes and some variation on "I support this" or "I oppose this"). This post from last week is the longest post that he's made since he swore in at the beginning of January, and the only one that he's made in seven months as a Senator that is over two sentences.

No offense, Goldwater, but you're the Clarence Thomas of the Atlasian Senate. I have no idea why the Federalists renominated you, but the fact that you won reelection by virtue of having a pulse and a blue avatar is depressing. And unless someone is just PMing you when your vote is needed, I don't know how you have any fun playing the bystander in a game like this.

That's both weird and false and to say that.

False? Yep, Senator Goldwater is maybe not the most active senator, but I don't believe his performance is so bad, as some people pretend. I mean, he has only missed one vote since the beginning of the 62nd senate, that could have been better, but that's not bad. I will soon reveal my activity senate tracker, and only four senators have never missed a vote. And then, maybe he could me more active, but he still participates in some threads, mostly on foreign matters. Of course he could participate more, but he isn't  the only senator to be relatively discret. So I understand why some people are implying he's so terrible.

[windjammer]

Bullsh**t. Showing up to vote consistently doesn't make someone a good Senator, or even an engaged one.

Someone who contributes nothing to Senate debate has no reason to be here. Scan Goldwater's posting history on this board if you doubt me.

Note that he still hasn't commented on his vote here despite being asked; he only bothered making a self-pitying response about how he "doesn't have anything of value to add." He doesn't deserve anyone's sympathy.

By the way, what is the root of this idea that because someone isn't the worst, they must not be that bad? It seems to come up every time any Senator receives criticism over their activity.

You have perfectly the right to criticize Senator Goldwater, I'm not denying that.

However, what I don't like is the constant attacks made ONLY on Senator Goldwater. You, oakvale,... He's certainly not the only senator that should be criticized, and the critics are always for him. That's what I have remarked. He's a bit a scapegoat for some people. That was my point. And I don't like that.

-----------------

By the way, the right way to deal with a situation like this is to insist on a second hearing where the nominee is on hand to answer questions. I have no doubt that Simfan is capable, but the same applies to many past Cabinet appointees who have nonetheless failed to uphold their duties.

In this case, the supposed ambiguity over whether this hearing is necessary should have been a reason to ask more questions and insist on better answers. At least two constitutional requirements cast into doubt Simfan's belief that he has always been Attorney General. First, his original swearing in post has been deleted. Second, he swore into another office, serving as GM for weeks. Why would anyone in his right mind vote in the affirmative without hearing what the person nominated to be the government's foremost legal adviser has to say about this?

Everyone knows that I like Simfan a lot, so believe me when I say that my outrage has nothing to do with him. It's about this Senate's pathetic excuse for a confirmation hearing.

Simfan would still be obliged to carry out certain legal duties as Attorney General even if he were to delegate most of the legal work to Deputy AG Snowstalker, but the fact that this position is at least nominally a legal one is not really what bothers me about what has happened here.

The issue is, of course, that no-one bothered letting me know that I actually was going to have to be renominated (although to your credit you did send me a PM about how you thought I would need to be) so I could keep an eye out for the thread or even just to tell me once the thread was started that people were asking questions (I recall Yankee doing this).

Obviously I'm not saying it's not my job to be on top of things but I was away for the weekend so I wasn't really on the forum all that much and I wasn't checking the Fantasy Government section for a thread I wasn't expecting to exist. Mea culpa, I suppose, but this could have avoided this had someone just kept me in the loop.

Yes, I PMed Nappy, Averroes, Hagrid and Snowstalker, telling them the thread was opened, but I forgot to PM Simfan. I have currently a lot of work both irl and on this forum. I'm finishing my state house PVI, I will have an important role for the next senate as presiding officer (10 threads, and 15 right now), and I'm doing my Windjammer senate tracker.

Of course, that's a lot of things. And it's me who has chosen to do that. I would apologize if I did something wrong as Presiding officer, because it was for what I was elected and that the fact I have some other things to do wouldn't be an excuse.

However, in the case of PMing the nominees, that's not something I have to do. That's a bonus, like sometimes I'm PMing the senators just to be sure they don't miss the votes. That's a B-O-N-U-S, so I have no obligation to do that. I didn't have time to do for Simfan during the recent days because of my recent summer job and the problems with my foot. I won't apologize for not having done that. Because that's not my duty.

[windjammer]

Simfan fails to be confirmed.