Jack-booted Thugs

Another domino falls

Failing up.

When Donald started rolling out his cabinet nominees, it seemed each one was worse—more corrupt, more vicious, incompetent, and unqualified—than the last.

It seemed unthinkable that Republicans, for so long and erroneously considered the adults in the room when it came to national security, would even consider nominating such an unserious candidate as Pete Hegseth to be the Secretary of Defense, just as it seemed unthinkable that they would confirm an obvious Russian asset (or, as Russia media like to call her, “Putin’s girlfriend) to be Director of National intelligence.

So, too, did the confirmations of Robert Kennedy, a notorious, virulent, and life-long anti-vaccine sociopath, to head Health and Human Services, or Kash Patel to head the FBI.

The most egregiously bad (yes, I know that’s redundant) of the lot, of course, was Matt Gaetz, the nominee for attorney general. But despite being credibly accused of sex trafficking of a minor, Republicans still rallied around his nomination.

Ultimately, though, those charges weren’t the problem for Gaetz—a plurality of American voters had put an adjudicated rapist back into the White House after all. No, the problem for Gaetz is that familiarity breeds contempt and, except for a few of his colleagues who are just as depraved, almost everybody hated him. He was, essentially, the Ted Cruz of the House of Representatives—but worse.

Either because he knew he’d never be confirmed, or because he didn’t want to cause problems for Donald, or for some other corrupt reason, Gaetz dropped out to be replaced by Pam Bondi, an also-corrupt sycophant who, at least, was somewhat qualified—at least on paper. (Of course, this isn’t working out at all well for us either but, again, ostensibly the lesser of two evils, etc.)

So maybe Gaetz was the sacrificial lamb, after all. Maybe he was picked because, as vicious and reprehensible as he was, all of the other nominees also looked like the lesser of two evils by comparison. That seemed to be the logic at the time, at least.

But that should not have absolved Senate Republicans from their Constitutional duties.

Yes, presidents-elect can nominate whichever depraved miscreants they wish, and their party will go a long way to confirm as many of those nominees as possible; but that is not an excuse for abdicating their senatorial responsibility to advice and consent.

The transition would have been the time for Democrats in the Senate to strike. We still had the majority. They could have held their hearings into these nominees, actually substantive hearings, without the absurd limitations Republicans placed upon the process in January and February of 2025. These hearings would have had no impact on the nominations themselves, but, if done properly they may have informed the American people just how unqualified, corrupt, and compromised these people were, and how contemptuous the incoming administration was of Americans’ health and security. If done properly, the Democrats could have brought pressure to bear on Senate Republicans by alerting and activating their constituents.

But they did nothing.

Did they think it wouldn’t matter? Did they think people would have forgotten by the time confirmation hearings took place starting in January? Well, they wouldn’t have forgotten if hearings had been held every day until the Senate changed hands in January. Or maybe they were so blinded by their wrong-headed belief in collegiality and Senate decorum, that they still could not fathom what we were up against, and what their colleagues were capable of?

At that point, all that was left to hope for was that Senate Republicans would choose to protect American democracy. They had a 53-47 majority. They did not need one Democratic vote. But surely four Republicans would get it, and would understand that putting Kennedy in at HHS or Gabbard in as DNI would be utter and destructive madness.

Apparently not.

With every nominee who was confirmed, it became increasingly likely that the rest of them would be—many along party lines.

But it wasn’t just that should have tipped us off. We were also witnessing the fact that nobody, nobody in the Republican Party was lifting a finger to halt, or even slow down the marauding of Donald and Elon Musk as they dismantled or weakened every single agency in the federal government.

So, it should have come as no surprise that Kash Patel, the most obviously unfit, the most glaringly unqualified, and the most psychopathologically sycophantic would also get confirmed, yet another tiny man being handed power he does not deserve and could not possibly know how to wield.

The FBI is now in the hands of the man who for months now has claimed that the agency is part of the deep state; that he has an enemies list comprised of those who have stood up to and spoken out against his pathetic boss.

This is new territory—it’s all new territory. And I hate to end on a truism, but I think it’s apt: This is all going to get so much worse before it gets better. And we need to be prepared. Stay vigilant, everybody.

__

I don’t remember the first time I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing, but “The Lady Is a Tramp” is the first song of hers I loved.

To me, her voice is the greatest of all the voices. She is elegant and whip-smart. She was a consummate musician with an extraordinary range. She is deep while also having a brilliant sense of humor.

She is Ella.

And this song never fails to thrill me. Even now, it never fails to bring me joy.

And that’s what I’m choosing to take out into the world.