So this is the way the Democrats intend to fight the Republicans, huh. No wonder progressives are barking that the party is going to the dogs and becoming pets for the GOP.
Activist Michael Moore says: “Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.”
But there they were Monday night, the usual suspects — 14 Senate Democrats joined all but one Senate Republican in confirming Mike Pompeo as the new CIA director, failing a crucial first test of whether the party would present a united front to defend human rights and civil liberties in the Trump era.
Senator Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, was the lone member of his party to vote against his confirmation.
Pompeo is a far-right Kansas Republican who has defended CIA officials who engaged in torture, calling them “patriots.” Last week, he acknowledged in his written responses to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he would be open to altering a 2015 law prohibiting the government from using techniques — torture — not listed in the Army Field Manual. He believes in a robust intelligence database of American’s financial and lifestyle details. The CIA is prohibited by executive order from conducting electronic surveillance inside the United States, but the specific rules and policies governing CIA surveillance are secret and can be reinterpreted without public debate.
Look, the Democrats don’t have the votes to beat back Trump’s cabinet nominees. But can’t the Democrats at least put up a fight!
There was Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri taking her too-often trip in the right-of-center lane. I wrote her Tuesday night, reminding her that the Republicans were quite successful in stonewalling, blocking and distracting policy put forth by President Obama. And look how they won in the national election. Where’s at least the semblance of a fight, Claire?
I reminded her that she locked Howard Dean, then executive director of the Democratic National Committee, out of her campaign for the Senate; she was damn lucky she ran against a do-do Republican, Todd Akin.
She needs to stand up with the backbone straight against the opposition. It’s called leadership. When people don’t agree with you, you need to show them why you’re right. I remember when so-called Democratic moderates like Blanche Lincoln took their right-of-center approach to the voters and lost in a big way. A Republican prevailed. Arkansas voters ran her out of the Senate. Why support Democrats if they vote Republican?
Maybe some Democrats will take a lesson from the Tea Party. The odds were against this conservative group but the members remained together and fought every Democratic move. The strategy worked. Will the Democrats vote against Health and Human Services nominee Tom Price? Or how about Jeff Sessions for Attorney General? There are plenty of candidates left, so do something.
One who won’t is Senator Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia. He is a Republican in Democratic clothing.
But, hey, there’s Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, voting for each and every Trump nominee so far. Deplorable.
Oh he’s among those Democrats who say they don’t want to be seen as obstructionists like the Republicans were against Obama. Why not?
Schumer told CNN on Sunday: “We certainly feel that we have to bring to the American people how different this cabinet is — how hard-right, how many conflicts of interest, billionaires.”
Atta baby. Get ’em. So far, though, his bark is a whimper. He has voted for all four in Senate confirmations. He has declared his intention to vote against Sessions and has promised to oppose at least eight other nominees. But the ones he has approved certainly espouse right-wing policies.
Some media are asking: Are Republicans, who have the numbers to pass all of Trump’s nominees without any Democratic help anyway, really going to reward Schumer and Democrats with concessions down the road because they lined up on cabinet appointments?
Voice asked Schumer’s office to explain his approach to voting on the president’s cabinet nominees and to explain his yea votes; spokesman Angelo Roefaro responded in a statement: “Senator Schumer is leading the effort to put a spotlight on each and every cabinet nominee so the American public can hear what these nominees actually believe. This process has unearthed serious ethical problems with nominees and showcased beliefs that go directly against what the President promised the American people during his campaign. In cases where those stark contrasts are revealed, or those candidates are in opposition to core values, the Senator will vote ‘no,’ and urge his Republican colleagues to do the same.”
When does the yea become a nay?
Trump has the lowest poll numbers of any incoming president in the modern era. Millions of Americans throughout the country turned out for the inaugural protest on Saturday. Schumer and all the Democrats should take that as monumental support and follow it up with robust opposition against the cabinet nominees. Don’t make it easy.
Voice wrote, “Back in November, less than two weeks after Trump’s election, a group of protesters worried that Schumer was ill-suited to lead any meaningful resistance against the Trump agenda briefly took over his Washington office. One of the organizers of the protest told the Voice at the time, ‘What’s really dangerous about Chuck Schumer and the Democratic leadership is they don’t understand the stakes of what’s happening in this country.”
Pompeo’s confirmation is a case in point. Human Rights Watch opposed his nomination but the 14 Democrats ignored that group.
Monday, on the Senate floor, Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon called Pompeo “the wrong man for the job. On issue after issue, the congressman has taken two, three, or four positions, depending on when he says it and who he is talking to. He has done this with surveillance, with torture, with Russia, and a number of other subjects.”
But Senator Mark Warner, D-Virginia, said on the floor that although he didn’t agree with some of Pompeo’s views, he was convinced Pompeo would follow the law banning torture.
According to a statement by Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA, the confirmation vote on Pompeo was a clear sign that Congress had not done enough extreme vetting of Trump’s nominees’ views on human rights.
There were a few surprises of Democrats voting to confirm Pompeo. The overall list:
- McCaskill
- Schumer
- Warner
- Manchin
- Joe Donnelly, Indiana
- Dianne Feinstein, California
- Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire
- Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota
- Tim Kaine, Virginia
- Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
- Jack Reed, Rhode Island
- Brian Schatz, Hawaii
- Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
- Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island
Angus King, the independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, also voted in favor of Pompeo’s confirmation.
Connecticut Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy did not vote.