Transition Team/Cabinet Thread

[Mr. Morden]

Current Secretary of State prices on Predictit:

Giuliani 40
Romney 23
Bolton 10
Corker 8
Rohrabacher 8
Haley 6

[ApatheticAustrian]

Wow...

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https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/799676930966491136

[RogueBeaver]

Mattis being interviewed for SECDEF.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Mattis being interviewed for SECDEF.

I don't know much about Mattis, but his Wikipedia article includes the phrase 'controversial Silicon Valley biotech company' so I oppose him for anything higher than dogcatcher until proven otherwise.

[KingSweden]

Wow...

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https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/799676930966491136

Any chance Paul opposes Sessions? Or Collins?

[RogueBeaver]

Tom Price is the favorite for HHS.

[Gass3268]

Tom Price is the favorite for HHS.

Yay! The one person who could actually kill my job

[Wiz in Wis]

Wow...

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https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/799676930966491136

Any chance Paul opposes Sessions? Or Collins?

Or Murkowski, Lee, Hatch? Mormons are not big fans of minority-haters.

[Fusionmunster]

Wow...

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https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/799676930966491136

Any chance Paul opposes Sessions? Or Collins?

Or Murkowski, Lee, Hatch? Mormons are not big fans of minority-haters.

There are quite a few republicans I can see voting against Sessions. My worry is I can see every single one of them voting for him too.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Wow...

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https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/799676930966491136

Any chance Paul opposes Sessions? Or Collins?

Or Murkowski, Lee, Hatch? Mormons are not big fans of minority-haters.

Being conservative and supporting law and order is not the same thing as hating minorities.

[Fusionmunster]

Wow...

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https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/799676930966491136

Any chance Paul opposes Sessions? Or Collins?

Or Murkowski, Lee, Hatch? Mormons are not big fans of minority-haters.

Being conservative and supporting law and order is not the same thing as hating minorities.

Sessions has a history of hating minorities however.

[Maxwell]

Sessions is literally against the Voting Rights Act.

[Fusionmunster]

No to sound like a hack, but Trump's picks so far have had incredible amounts of baggage and stem quite a bit of hatred from the left. To say these have been unwise choices would be an understatment. Trump is setting himself up for confirmation battles and bad press, why?

[KingSweden]

No to sound like a hack, but Trump's picks so far have had incredible amounts of baggage and stem quite a bit of hatred from the left. To say these have been unwise choices would be an understatment. Trump is setting himself up for confirmation battles and bad press, why?

Because he doesn't know what he's doing? There's going to be tremendous political capital wasted very very early.

[ApatheticAustrian]

No to sound like a hack, but Trump's picks so far have had incredible amounts of baggage and stem quite a bit of hatred from the left. To say these have been unwise choices would be an understatment. Trump is setting himself up for confirmation battles and bad press, why?

he is just picking 1) loyalists, who are often damaged goods to start with, 2) pander-picks to the GOP base, which are as extreme as the come and to a smaller amount 3) floating never-trumpers for show.

[Maxwell]

Trump knows exactly what he's doing - he's giving patronage to all of his friends who helped him along the way.

[ApatheticAustrian]

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3949670/Peter-Thiel-created-secret-database-called-Plum-List-screen-fast-track-talent-shown-loyalty-Trump-come-outside-Beltway.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

[Mr. Morden]

I really think many of you are overestimating the chances that any Republican Senator will vote against Sessions.  There are going to be so many controversial Trump Cabinet picks, and there just won't be enough media oxygen for the controversy to grow into something fatal for all of them.  And again, the Senators all know Sessions personally, so they're less likely to vote against him than they would another nominee.

Heck, look at what Amash has been tweeting.  He says he has problems with Sessions for AG, but not really with Pompeo for CIA, more or less admitting that while he has differences with Pompeo, they're colleagues in the House and he respects him.  That's what the other Senators will think about Sessions.  It usually takes a lot for Senators to oppose a nomination from a president of their own party (granted, some of these folks publicly opposed Trump in the election, so that's already unusual), and I don't see it happening here unless there's a bunch of new information about Sessions yet to come out.

If things get really bad for Sessions, then the Dems will filibuster the nomination and it'll die, but the Republicans will probably all vote in favor of breaking the filibuster.  Even those Republicans who are publicly undecided on the underlying nomination will still vote to break the filibuster in order to have an up or down vote.

[ApatheticAustrian]

like half of political twitter was pointing out today, there is no filibuster for positions like that anymore.

[krazen1211]

Jeff Sessions already has great bipartisan support. Joe Manchin is backing him.

[Fusionmunster]

Jeff Sessions already has great bipartisan support. Joe Manchin is backing him.

Thats not saying much.

[ApatheticAustrian]

manchin can do whatever he wants for 2 years......could be even more important in 2018 when his vote maybe decides wether something can be filibustered or not.

[Classic Conservative]

Wow...

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https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/799676930966491136

Any chance Paul opposes Sessions? Or Collins?

Or Murkowski, Lee, Hatch? Mormons are not big fans of minority-haters.

Collins backs Sessions: https://mobile.twitter.com/frankthorp/status/799747717459152896
Hatch and Lee back Sessions: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865667513/Hatch-Lee-support-Trumps-choice-for-US-attorney-general.html

[Simfan34]

You know whose name I'm surprised we haven't heard thrown about yet? David Petraeus, who has quietly been attempting a comeback of sorts.

Wait, no, him too-- for State. Although I could see him as Director of National Intelligence, or at Defense. (The restriction for ex-officers is for five years, right? In that case, he's clear.)

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I have to wonder where Petraeus would be if he'd never had that scandal. He'd probably be a juggernaut looming over everything, implored to run for President,  courted for Vice-President, and (as now, amazingly enough), considered for the highest posts in cabinet. He'd probably serve as a lightning rod for-- and, as a result of his stature, generate-- rumors of military designs against the Trump administrations. not dissimilar from those surrounding Lord Mountbatten; less outlandishly, more than a few liberals would pin their indeterminate hopes on him, the former "General Betray-us".

Trump, egged on the more paranoid elements of his inner circle (e.g. Bannon), would probably come to see Petraeus as a threat and either try to neutralize him or take extraordinary measures to "placate" him and his "faction" (even if there was nothing to actually placate), possibly by making him a five-star general and/or appointing him to an increasingly absurd panoply of high offices (e.g., Secretary of State, and "Executive Secretary of the National Security Council", and Senior Advisor to the President, or some other combination). This in turn would make those fears become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Petraeus accumulated power and had a faction form naturally around him as the Trump presidency worsens/worsened.

Something like this may still happen yet if his name is in the mix. Alternatively, the administration and/or its organs may start reviving conspiracy theories (once given consideration by yours truly!) about Petraeus's fall being the result of an Obama-manufactured plot to eliminate a rival, in order to rehabilitate him further. Indeed, many serious commentators have suggested political considerations were behind Obama's decision to pass over Petraeus for the Joint Chiefs and instead appoint him to the diminished office of CIA Director, since 2004 subordinate to the Director of National Intelligence.

[Maxwell]

Republicans can have Manchin's seat if he's literally doing that. I mean what's the point of having a Democrat senator if he's going to vote for someone we rejected for being horrible 30 years ago and he's just as horrible now.